Following are highlights of the conference on the luxury front:

Using the "L" Word

When Lalia Rach, the departing dean at NYU's hospitality school and moderator of a panel of CEO's asked, "Can we use the word "luxury" anymore?" here were a couple of replies:

• Arne Sorenson, president and COO of Marriott: "A lot of the talk about luxury was poppycock. Luxury got a bad name. But even in the depths of the recession, luxury had an advantage because it offers a great experience. Ritz-Carlton (operated by Marriott) is recovering more quickly than our other brands. One financial firm booked a Ritz-Carlton meeting the day after paying back its TARP money. We have changed our messaging: rather than images of lavish facilities, we will focus on experiences."
• Andrew Cosslett, InterContinental Hotels corporation: "Luxury brands with an authentic base of clients weathered the storm well.  InterContinental had 75 projects in the pipeline and 67 continue to be viable."

Stats Tell the Story

Mark Lomanno, president of Smith Travel Research, the industry statisticians, said, "Luxury demand is up 15 percent this year." And while rates have not recovered in a similar fashion, Lomanno said the first steps have been taken; he explained, "The widest gap between our luxury and upper upscale categories was $47; that is down to $14 because of price compression caused by discounting; it will take some time to decompress."

The Outlook

Kathleen Taylor, just named CEO of Four Seasons  (she takes over on August 1), said the new normal is "similar to the old normal but better because we have had to learn to think more broadly about what we are doing. Whether that involves environmental or other issues, we have had to check our premises. With all that talk of the end of luxury, we all had to look at ourselves very hard and it was a great test. We proved that the segment has staying power. Also, owners and brands in luxury came together during this period to get through it."

By Harvey Chipkin