In her best-selling 2007 book,  Deluxe-How Luxury Lost Its Luster, Dana Thomas, who has been cultural and fashion writer for Newsweek in Paris for 12  years,  offers important insights on new directions in luxury goods marketing, and a few nuggets for Luxury travel marketers.

".....Tycoons like to boast that their companies aren't brands, they are lifestyles. And their creative directors/designers  are today's ultimate arbiters of taste. If they can dress you and your home, why shouldn't they envelop you on vacation, too?"

From there, Thomas takes us through Versace's first hotel venture in 2000,  Palazzao Versace in Australia, and a plan for  to roll out 14 more including a Dubai opening in 2009. The parade of luxury hotel brands with luxury goods parentage,  including Bulgari, Armani, Ferragamo, continues.

Meanwhile, the $157 billion luxury goods business is undergoing a transformation--"going mass, " Thomas says.  The democratization of luxury goods  is here to stay, but what about those hotel brands? They are certainly dancing to a different tune, some even eschewing the business traveler.

Hershel Sarbin