Luxury Travel & Lifestyle Trends

Camping, the most ancient form of holiday accommodation, has seen a resurgence. In tandem with the heady fortunes of 2007, last year we saw the height of glamping (glamorous camping), which featured four-poster beds, lavish bed linens and fluffly towels, as well as tents for lounging, gaming and reading. Guests could dine on regional high-end food and wines, then commune in the fresh air while enjoying reflexology, massage and other top spa treatments. The next iteration…

A new year means a fresh look at the world and a fresh palate. We’ve found some food trends in store for 2009, so if you want to get a head start for the holidays, here’s some suggestions to start the year off right:

It’s that time of year when all good marketers start looking to the year ahead for creative, new strategies for 2009…we want (and need) to know what consumers will crave, so we can be there to meet their demand. The team here at KWE group are self-professed foodies, so what better subject to analyze than food….

Mobile technology, social communities and guerilla marketing is where recent attention has turned. As smart minds always advise, to stand out from the pack is to do something different, which can include a tactical throwback from the past: an effectively written letter on the finest engraved stationery, complete with a full-sized product sample - no miniature samples or plastic packets in sight.

Not only have sales of fine jewelry plummeted recently, it seems that those that have the bling don’t feel much like wearing it these days. The notable absence of pricey baubles and beads at some of the top recent events, of the ‘who’s who” in Miami, a city not noted for understatement.

Face it, flying these days can be only for the birds but airports around the world are offering fun and soothing options to make the travel experience a little less stressful. It used to be that the only way you could kill time at an airport before a flight was by eating fast food or drinking at a bar. Times have changed and nowadays you can indulge in a massage, mani/pedi or an oxygen session and even karaoke!

If you thought it was adventurous to stay in an ice hotel, a castle in Europe or a tree house in the jungle of Belize, now you can take it a step further and stay in a hospital, a jail, a bank, a lighthouse and even a railcar.

Popular wisdom among luxury brands is never to cut prices or risk devaluing the exclusive perception. But in these times when even the top economists and business leaders can’t seem to find the route to prosperity, everything is up for re-evaluation.

‘First Class All the Way’, follows Sara Duffy, founder of SRD International and her Los Angeles based multi-million dollar, five-star travel concierge business.

Luxury providers constantly need to challenge themselves to find new ways of meeting (even exceeding) their customers expectations. The saavy, wealthy and on-the-go constituents of Generation X and Generation Y expect more capability, flexibility and technology.