Understanding the evolving needs of luxury travellers

At the recent MICE & Luxury Forum hosted by Sands China at Sands Expo & Convention Centre, leading hoteliers expressed their views on how luxury travel is evolving.

The event on June 8, 2023 drew panel speakers Alan Watts, president, Asia Pacific Hilton; Christian Westbeld, managing director, Raffles Hotel Singapore; Michael Malik, Marriott International COO, Great China; and Rainer Stampfer, president, Global Operations Hotels & Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

M&C Asia shares the highlights of the session, Luxury Hospitality: The New Playbook for Building Guest Experiences.

How would you summarise the priorities for today's luxury traveller?

Alan Watts, president, Asia Pacific Hilton: “What's happening in the industry at the moment is we have pent up travel demand - three years’ worth of savings and everybody's in deficit.” By that Watts meant that people are staying longer at luxury hotels because they “owe their loved ones and children” the vacation they have not had for three years. The “aspirational luxury traveller” is one segment that does not live a luxury lifestyle but is now experiencing luxury hotels for the first time.

He added: “That’s the traveller that’s buying the swag - they’re buying the logo collections of hotels and experiences.

“And then we have the traditional luxury traveller that has an expectation that their travel experience matches their lifestyle. I would say that the emerging or aspirational luxury traveller is the easier of the two - they are wild by whatever services that we provide.”

“The discerning, sophisticated luxury traveller is looking for day to day interactions that are at the pinnacle of service and experience, and that traveller has become as demanding as they have always been and more so because they haven't been on the road.”

With hotel rates climbing, how do you pitch your value proposition?

Christian Westbeld, managing director, Raffles Hotel Singapore said that creating experiences is something that has to be sustained and delivered. “At the ultra-luxury level, we compare ourselves not only to concepts that are regionally based, but look across the borders. We look at it from a Singapore perspective, what is happening in New York, what is riding luxury in New York, what is happening in London, what is riding in Paris.” Westbeld added that the critical element to sustain the hotel rates that luxury hotels are enjoying right now, is to ensure that these factors are connected and growing with employee engagement. He added: “And if this is all moving in tandem, then I actually predict that this rate recovery is sustainable at the top level.”

What has been the Marriott spectrum of priorities that are continuing to be critical, and what are some priorities that may have fallen off the radar from an important standpoint, post pandemic?

Michael Malik, Marriott International COO, Great China said: “We've had to double down on past stuff like health, safety, all this stuff. It has become very tight, like a minimum requirement right now. What we're seeing is that the millennials are relying more on social media to make decisions. They want to be part of that experience that they’ve seen online, especially in the Mainland.”

He said that social media, especially the Chinese social media has become very important. “Our customers have become very impatient. They want things done right away. And they need to be in an environment that's very flexible. They might want to change their itineraries very quickly. We have to become very, very nimble.”

He added that whilst sustainability is “big”, and people are looking for places to stay where they feel like the organisation is focused on sustainability, they may not necessarily want to participate in an effort, but want to be associated with preservation.

How would you define luxury at the highest end?

Rainer Stampfer, president, Global Operations Hotels & Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, said that creating a sense of belonging was key and guests have to feel that “we are generous to them and that they don’t have to think too much about the value proposition, and that we deliver to them.” The industry is moving more and more to imagination, beyond a packaged experience – to transport people into a lifestyle, whether it is what they are used to, or to an aspirational lifestyle, he said.

How do destinations reach out to luxury travellers?

Watts said: “We've also got to refresh customers’ mindsets and what's available again. If you look at a luxury customer, the luxury customer doesn't know they're a luxury customer. It's just how they travel, how they live their life - they are navigating the life that they've always advocated. And so the challenge is if we think of destinations, then destinations over decades have ended up with labels. And so Monaco, French Polynesia Maldives have always been seen as luxury destinations. Paris, parts of parts of London, and then other destinations have been sort of tagged as a business destination, as in the case here with Singapore, or Macau and Las Vegas as entertainment destination.

“So in order to become on that luxury traveller’s bucket list, it is a matter of communicating personalisation, and experiences.” Destinations whilst trying hard to attract large events, have to communicate a bespoke experience. “If you also want to have a luxury experience, if you don't have a private box, if you don't have a meet and greet opportunity, if you don't have a photo opportunity if the venue is catered by someone that can't do DOME crew and you cannot elevate it, then unfortunately the destination gets tagged. We've seen some great transitions globally. But I would say in order to re-attract and maintain, it is a matter of evolving a destination to be on that luxury circle.”