Participants
at this week’s International Travel Market (ILTM) in Cannes
attended the event’s Opening Forum to listen to industry leaders
share their inspirations and predict trends for tomorrow’s global
luxury travel industry.
ILTM
Exhibition Director Alison Gilmore, welcomed the audience of over
1500 high end luxury travel providers and buyers from more than 85
countries to the Opening Forum, commenting:
“It
is crucial to recognise change, seize new opportunities and
continually explore the question of the high end consumer’s
engagement and loyalty.”
Consultant
editor at The Economist John Andrews set the scene on ‘The World in
2013’ outlining the Economist’s global economic predictions for
the next 12 months and the impact on the luxury consumer. He foresees
growth in Africa, Latin America and Australia, a recovery in North
America and predicts foreign investment heading to the new emerging
economies of the Philippines and Indonesia, including an increased
influx of high net worth travellers from across the world. It was
also noted that South America is now being ‘taken seriously’ for
not only inbound but also outbound luxury tourism.
In
a series of exclusive, conversational, one-to-one interviews,
delegates heard views on what is luxury and also what isn’t for the
discerning traveller of today. Mr Silvio Ursini, Executive Vice
President, Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, spoke of their holistic
approach to design within each of their growing portfolio of hotels.
He talked about how they “transferred a 100 year old brand famous
for its jewellery into a gem of bespoke hotels, each of them crafted
like a precious stone” rather than a developing a brand philosophy.
He also spoke of the importance of individuality in location and “a
creative design that is culturally sensitive to the hotel’s
location”.
His
views on individuality were echoed by Kit Kemp, Design Director of
Ferndale Hotels who outlined a similar design philosophy of “one
project at a time”, with each hotel created as a bespoke
experience.
Presentations
also talked about newly affluent tourists seeking new destinations,
citing some 50 million Chinese tourists soon looking to travel
overseas. More and more, “time well spent” is the definitive
experience sought by a luxury traveller, wherever they are from.
ILTM
lasted
until Thursday 6 December, facilitating over 51,000 pre-arranged
business appointments throughout this ‘invitation only’ event for
the luxury travel industry.
ILTM
(International Luxury Travel Market) – the invitation-‐only
event where the finest of luxury travel experiences are created and
launched – facilitated over 51,000 individual meetings between the
industry’s elite when it took place over the last 4 days in Cannes.
The
2012 event welcomed the rising stars of the future in several focused
events created to provide insights based on the first-‐hand
experience of this new generation of travelers and their
knowledge of the travel marketplace.
With
an Education Programme covering subjects as diverse as ‘The role of
children in the family travelplanning process’ and ‘Gastronomy
driving travel decision making’, ILTM also hosted 1350 VIP buyers
who met with 1350 high-‐end travel suppliers throughout the
event – an over 10% increase on 2011.
