Luxury Travel

Growing the luxury side of the business is clearly a priority for newish CEO Keith Barr, and IHG does need another high-end offering to truly compete with the likes of Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons. We're wondering which brands IHG is looking at buying.

Nowadays, luxury travel is all about discovering new frontiers. It's not just about expanding physical and geographic boundaries. The travel cognoscenti are "brain dating" around the world in order to stretch their minds.

The needs and wants of luxury travelers have evolved dramatically in recent years, which means the services looking to reach them need to offer a fully vetted, curated, and unique experience — this is especially true of sharing economy services.

To be honest, we weren't very surprised by Thursday's launches. In fact, we wondered why they haven't been launched sooner. But for the most part, all of them certainly seem in step with Airbnb's plans for being much more than just about any other travel brand or company out there.

Wealthy tourists are happy to flash a helluva lot of cash to ensure what they are doing has rarely – if ever – been done before.

Just when you started having it up to here with ballyhooed buzzwords like millennials, authenticity and experiential travel, along comes J. Walter Thompson with a whole new compendium of marketing terminology. Let's see what sticks.

Japan lags far behind its Asian tourism competition in attracting Western visitors. As the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games approach, the country is adopting a new strategy for landing on the region's tourism medal stand.

Under previous CEO Richard Solomons, IHG had looked to fill "white space" in its portfolio and it looks like this plan is continuing under his successor. Despite having a well-established luxury brand, the area is something of a weak spot for the company, with no true high-end offering. It sounds like IHG is well on the way to rectifying this.

While wellness tourism might be growing in popularity, setting up a dedicated cruise line is another matter. First you've got to finance the venture, then you must convince consumers that you're a better bet than the existing lines.

A new cruise line is betting that focusing on a specific market niche will be a winning strategy. We look at the game plan behind the new fitness-focused concept and consider whether it can work out.