What LVMH’s Belmond Buy Means for the Future of Luxury Travel
Photo Credit: Luxury conglomerate LVMH is buying Belmond's portfolio of luxury hotels, trains, cruises, and restaurants for $2.6 billion. Belmond
Skift Take
LVMH might not have been the most obvious of suitors for Belmond's luxury assets, but now that it's close to owning them, it's a deal that makes a lot of sense in this post-experience economy still contending with the concept of new luxury.
In the luxury hotel space, AccorHotels and Marriott have some new competition.
French luxury conglomerate LVMH, the company behind such iconic brands as Dom Perignon and Louis Vuitton, wasn't the most obvious of suitors for the storied Belmond collection of 46 luxury hotels, trains, and cruises, which were formerly known as Orient-Express.
In fact, most in the real estate and hospitality and travel industries assumed that the usual suspects, such as Blackstone, KSL Partners, or maybe even Hilton, would wind up owning a piece of Belmond.
But now that LVMH has officially inked a $2.6 billion all-cash agreement with Belmond, its move to make Belmond a part of its relatively small but growing hospitality business makes all the more sense as LVMH hopes to "reach a critical mass in the ultimate hospitality world," as Chris Hollis, LVMH director of financial communications, remarked during a Friday conference call regarding the acquisition.
Why This Deal Makes Sense
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