- A material object, service, etc, conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity.
- Free or habitual indulgence in or enjoyment of comforts and pleasures in addition to those necessary for a reasonable standard of well-being.
- A means of ministering to such indulgence or enjoyment.
- A pleasure out of the ordinary allowed to oneself.
- A foolish or worthless form of self-indulgence.
And at 6, its archaic meaning: Lust; lasciviousness; lechery.
Post-midnight at a travel conference, I’m sure we’ve all witnessed plenty of the latter!
But I’d ask you to put that thought to one side for a moment and apply each definition to the travel industry; the company you work for or manage; the holidays you sell; and the clients you have. Whether you specialise in a particular sector, sell short-haul, long-haul, cheap, upmarket, cruise or coach, I am confident that there will be aspects of luxury as defined above, that apply to what you do.
For me, luxury is not a term that just relates to parts of the travel industry – it is relevant to the sector as a whole. Travel in its entirety is a luxury industry.
I was reminded of that this week during a chat with my daughter Amy, who had just returned from a short break at Pontins in Camber Sands. While there is much to admire and enthuse about at Camber Sands, I doubt many would describe the resort as luxurious.
Yet to the person that was with Amy at Pontins, luxury was exactly what it was. That’s because Amy works for an organisation that cares for homeless people who suffer with mental health issues. It was one of these patients that she was accompanying on the break.
The chat with Amy took me way back to my first travel shop situated in one of the rougher areas of north Birmingham. As the posh boy from Solihull, embedded with middle class attitudes, I needed to learn and adapt pretty sharpish to survive.
And I did learn. A lot. Very quickly!
The biggest lesson was that every customer, no matter the size of their purchase, deserved the very best from me. I realised that regardless of the destination, cost or standard of holiday being booked, for pretty much every one of my customers, that holiday was a luxury purchase. And so it was a luxury service that every customer received.
Next week I’m looking forward to attending and contributing to what I’m sure will be another fantastic ttgluxury Seminar. The setting at The Roof Gardens in Kensington will be wonderful and the discussions around trends in luxury travel and evolving marketing ideas, doubtless fascinating.
I shall return to Brum inspired to apply what I discover, to further develop the positioning of Holidaysplease in the luxury sector.
Richard Dixon is director of Holidaysplease
