Thomas Baumgartner, Authorized Signatory and Head of Marketing Asia Special Tours GmbH
What does "new luxury" mean when traveling?
When we talk about "new" luxury, we tend to forget that the basic idea of luxury is timeless. Luxury is what is rare. So what is changing is not so much our interpretation of luxury, but rather what we now consider rare and precious. The highly polished hotel suite hardly falls into this category any more. At best, it becomes the standard, but it is not a selling point that inspires. So what is emerging as the "new luxury" in travel these days? Deceleration, purism and selfness are just as much a part of it as seclusion and privacy. Unspoiled nature, sustainability and authenticity are also individual pieces of a larger mosaic. Basically, it's about unique experiences that remain hidden from customers in their everyday lives.
What luxurious experiences will customers expect in the future?
What is considered rare for the individual varies greatly. For one person, a stay in a monastery in Cambodia is a luxurious experience, as they find complete seclusion there. The next person is looking for authentic experiences with nature and people and opts for a trip through the village regions of Thailand. We see a trend towards "once-in-a-lifetime" experiences where the customer can look behind the scenes. This includes experiencing the destination with all their senses and getting in touch with the locals. Searching for meaning, conscious travel and finding inner balance instead of chasing after the next attraction.
How will booking behavior change?
New luxury means new challenges in terms of advice. Customers are booking unique experiences that can hardly be adequately described in a catalog. As many customers are less concerned with the "where" and more with the "why", personal advice before making a booking is becoming much more relevant. In addition to professional expertise, empathy is required to understand the customer's motives. Regular customers are becoming even more important, as are multi-generational trips to share extraordinary experiences.
About Asia Special Tours:
Asia Special Tours is a specialist tour operator for high-quality premium tours to Asia. Individual travel with a personal tour guide, your own chauffeur and free time management by the travelers themselves is the specialty of this niche provider, which has been established on the market since 1994. The travel experts at Asia Special Tours create tailor-made individual tours according to customer requirements. Thanks to their extensive knowledge of the destination, they only offer hotels and destinations that the Asia experts have seen for themselves. Asia Special Tours works together with travel agencies on request.
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