In recent weeks , hoping we could stop “guestimating” about total annual spending in luxury travel,  we have talked with leading economists and market researchers in travel. 

We published important data and insights from Oxford Economics and TIA and WTTC  Reports on total travel revenues around the globe, as well as the multiplier effect of travel spending. 

But  the most productive thing we did, in trying to get our arms around the luxury travel piece, was to visit by phone with Nancy Cockerell in England, who led the team that did the research on international travel spending for the International Luxury Travel Market report (ILTM) presented at their recent  Cannes event. 

Nancy meticulously walked us through the  solid methodology that led to the $200  billion tally cited in the ILTM Report for 2007. Now that comes to 20% of all international travel spending. While some suggest the percentage may be closer to 25%, we are going to use $200 billion and  20% as our Lux 360 (pleasure and  business) baseline in tracking luxury travel internationally. (When  we move to domestic luxury travel, including the U.S., no one seems to have mastered all the complexities of a luxury calculation.) 

We also asked Cockerell about  the area of affordable luxury, or cafeteria luxury, as we call it; people aspiring to luxury, and choosing elements of the high end spend on a trip rather than ‘Full Boat’. “Not a part of their calculation,”  Nancy said.

But we did persuade her, we think, to share in an upcoming column, some thoughts about how luxury goods brands in Europe are reacting to the trend toward  ‘massclusivity’. Looks like a bit of backlash may be in the works to preserve the sanctity of the brand.

Hershel Sarbin, Editor and Publisher