Adieu, Extravagance, Bonjour, Engagement: The Travel World's Wakeup Call.
Melissa Bradley, founder of Indagare, uses her new blogger perch at Huffington Post to weigh in on ILTM Cannes—an excerpt, and more: “The luxury travel industry has gathered in Cannes this week for the International Luxury Travel Market, its premier annual conference -- and to take stock. For the past five years, the travel and tourism business has grown at a rate of 10 percent a year. That bubble has burst. In fact, at the opening forum, Guy Gillon, director of corporate finance for hospitality and leisure at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, predicted severe decline for the next two to three years -- with no rise in growth until the first quarter of 2012. Audible gasps greeted the gloomy prediction, but when bubbles burst, the collapse is painful. Proof of the industry's bubble: how about the fact that there are 52 high-end hotels in the Maldives alone? A year ago, when Americans started cutting back on European travel because of the weak dollar, many five-star hoteliers shrugged and replied, "Well, now we have the Russians." Well, yesterday Standard and Poor downgraded Russia's credit rating (the first G8 member to have it done), so that delusion has been banished.
Excellent review on how quickly times have changed, and near-term prognosis
“Even as midprice hotels began losing business this past summer,” Sharkey writes, “ luxury hotels continued to fill their rooms. Companies treated the hotels as perks for top executives and quality locations for high-level business meetings. And many leisure travelers considered a stay at a top hotel — even for a couple of days — to be worth the cost.
Since mid-September, almost in parallel with the stock market turmoil, demand for fancy hotel rooms has plummeted.
Yes, Times have changed! Quicktime Sharkey takeaways:
Public indignation over big paydays and the lavish expenses of top executives hurts luxury hotel business. Companies concerned about perceptions, how it looks to others when employees stay in hotels whose very names evoke images of opulence
Financial services and other companies have quietly advised employees against using luxury hotels. Again, perception--- how it looks if you’re laying off 10 percent of your work force and you have people staying at $500-a-night or $1,000-a-night hotels Read More
But no! Along with our original find, (www.conradhotels.com), Newsweek writer Tiffanie Wen cites other underwater ventures, like Red Sea Star Restaurant and Bar in Eilat, Israel - (www.redseastar.com); the Lime Spa at Huvafen Fushi (www.huvafenfushi.com); and scheduled for late 2010, the $150 million Poseidon Undersea Resort in Fuji-nestled on the ocean floor. (www.poseidonresorts.com)
Last week, when OpenSkies, BA's boutique airline, launched flights from New York to Amsterdam. a batch of JoeSentMe contributors were onboard. They sat in business class. I was in prem+, the airline's premium economy section. Meanwhile, Karen Fawcett flew from New York to Paris on OpenSkies' other route. Then they returned on separate days in prem+ while I tested OpenSkies' business class on a return flight. We each wrote our own reviews, which all appear today.
“ None of us talked to each other during the flights or afterwards to avoid a "group think" mentality, “Joe said. “ We wrote and judged separately, without consulting the others.” Clever approach. Certainly appealed to me. So, here’s the link http://joe.biztravelife.com/joe.html
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