Luxury

It’s difficult to grow as a company if you just stick to what you do best. So opportunistic brands are betting on different aspects of wellness and hoping to find more customers in the process.

Despite suffering from the Trump administration's travel bans, the Middle East is a target for Visit California. The region's luxury travelers are big spenders abroad and it makes sense for destinations to try and work out how best to capture some of that cash.

In the effort to attract high-spending tourists, states often look overseas. That's a good idea — international visitors typically spend more than domestic travelers. But certain international markets present a more complicated consumer landscape than others. That's what Visit California has discovered as it starts wooing more travelers from the Middle East.

There’s now a wellness-themed trip out there for almost every traveler’s wants, whether that’s an ultra-exclusive self-care summit or an intense hiking tour in a remote locale. So it comes as no surprise that the already booming wellness industry is now benefiting from people hitting the road.

Wellness may be booming, but there’s still plenty of opportunity to do something new, said Octave Institute founder Fred Tsao. His holistic vision, based around the idea of Quantum Leadership, could become a new model for the sector.

A sustained dispute between the United States and China will do plenty of damage to the American luxury retail industry.

An expected drop in Chinese tourism to the United States won’t just impact hotels and restaurants. In fact retail may take the biggest hit.

Emirates has fired the first salvo in the unbundling of business class fares. Now you can buy just the seat, with none of the other trimmings that travelers are used to with top-tier carriers. It's a pragmatic strategy, one that gives more choice to travelers. The tension will now be maintaining that great luxury brand halo and still letting the premium cabins do the marketing hard yards for the carrier.

It makes sense that the alcohol industry would want in on the wellness movement, considering it’s a sector that has everything to do with lifestyle. But it’s unclear if consumers will get on board with the repositioning or if they’ll just consider it a buzzkill.

It's good to see that the Philippines keeps cracking down on developments to ensure they are in line with environmental and easement issues, even those at the ultra-premium end of the spectrum. But that's not the only challenge Banwa faces.