Luxury Travel

While yachting is undeniably attractive for luxury travelers, is it really ripe for disruption? The practical and logistical concerns make an intermediary or manager seem more attractive than in other sectors.

Breaking open the yacht rental market with a sharing platform is a difficult endeavor given the challenges of operating a digital business within the luxury sector as well as the nuances and securities needed for an experience as hands-on as yachting.

An experience that only has a temporary shelf life is more valuable to certain consumers – especially those with plenty of money to spend. We can expect to see more hospitality brands experimenting with pop-ups in the future.

Given that luxury is all about rarity, it's no wonder that pop-ups of all sorts are creeping into the high-end arena. In the world of hospitality, basic pop-up accommodations have been springing up at festivals like Coachella for awhile. But more elaborate, ephemeral digs are only now starting to pop up in unexpected places around the world.

Kimpton is pretty unknown in Europe and Asia but that is about to change. Whether it truly is a luxury brand is a moot point; InterContinental Hotels Group thinks it is, and will be pushing it as such.

Everyone is talking about experiential travel these days. But Tourism Australia is upping the ante, using experiences to drive a premium strategy aimed at attracting more affluent visitors.

Starwood Capital's sale of a luxury/upscale portfolio represented a good opportunity for InterContinental Hotels to expand its luxury footprint in the UK. CEO Keith Barr obviously thinks there's plenty of room for growth in the sector.

AccorHotels has made quite a shift upmarket in the last couple of years and it's unlikely the acquisition of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts will be the end of its dealmaking exploits.

Germaphobes will be relieved not to have to touch a hotel room remote control again.

Travel guides, in their various forms, are a dying breed, especially those that require an expensive army of reviewers. They are still valued by agents and others in the industry, but with cheaper alternatives out there, how long can they survive?