In February of this year we gave high praise to Nancy Cockerell, who led the team that did the research on international travel spend for International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) in 2007 and arrived at the $200 billion tally for luxury which we found quite credible.

We also talked about democratization of luxury, affordable luxury, massclusivity, and persuaded her to lend her voice to the subject in a future Lux 360 column.

Well, here it is, under the title, Has Luxury Become Too Affordable? We are most pleased to have her as a contributor. (special advisory - Note Nancy’s description of the ‘Chav’ effect, in which luxury goods brands like Burberry’s are trying to reduce sales of their products to the ‘wrong people’)
 
Has luxury travel become too affordable?

“The democratization of luxury travel is here to stay”, Dana Thomas wrote in her best-selling 2007 book, How Luxury Lost its Luster. But what about luxury travel?
 

The 2007 ILTM Industry Report, released last December at the ILTM in Cannes, showed that one of the main difficulties in trying to assess the size and value of the luxury travel market was that there is no agreed definition of luxury travel. The term clearly means different things to different people. Moreover, the concept varies from one source country and age group to another, as well as being a moving target, since the market is becoming increasingly segmented.
 
The blurring of the definition has been exacerbated by the fact that staying at a luxury hotel or resort, and even traveling by private jet, has become more and more affordable – accessible to a wider segment of the population, and notably to increasingly aspirational and indulgent consumers who would not normally be characterized as luxury, or high-end travelers.
 
This in turn has contributed to the word ‘luxury’ losing its exclusive image, as Dana Thomas confirms, and is one of the many reasons why the industry now talks of several different levels of luxury – such as the ‘premium’, ‘ultra-luxury’ or ‘über-luxury’ segments.

There are increasing signs that traditional luxury travelers – people looking for a unique, authentic experience, with personalization, privacy, spiritual well-being and even simplicity as the overarching goals – are starting to resent the excessive conspicuous consumption, or demonstrable extravagance, being flaunted by some of today’s nouveaux riches and less mature luxury travel markets, or even non-luxury travelers who simply want to look as though they are in the same wealth bracket.
 
This resentment has already been evident for some time in the luxury retail sector. In the UK, for example, Burberry and other brands are trying to reduce sales of their branded goods to the ‘wrong people’. There are widespread photos of the so-called ‘Chavs’ ­– a derogatory UK slang term referring to a ‘subcultural stereotype’ fixated on fashion, such as (usually fake) designer clothing – kitted out from head to toe in their Burberrys, but mixing the style with elements of working-class British street fashion, such as trainers, tracksuit bottoms and polo shirts.
 
Now, rumor has it – although no-one dares to voice the fact too loudly – luxury travel clients and buyer groups are trying to ensure that they only travel to places where the ‘right’ people go.
 
According to Julian Rolfe, project manager at Vegas, the youth division in the UK of Synovate: “The prospect of going somewhere the Chavs go on holiday is too awful to contemplate for the affluent middle and upper classes.
 
“You could say the more affluent are seeking a road less ‘chavelled’.”