Since we started back in 2009 to offer trips and private experiences in Andalusia, much has changed; both the profile of the traveler and trends, and of course the external circumstances of a globalized world that nothing makes us strangers and affects us.
In this journey, with its comings and goings, I have met clients who over the years have become friends. They chat via whatsapp, call me after hours to tell me why they have had problems with a client, the most improbable anecdotes that would be enough for a book, etc. One of these friends is Adriana Vilas. She is a professional in the tourism sector with a luxury travel agency located in Madrid. From the beginning, besides trusting in our way of working and how to see inbound tourism, she has become a friend over the years, where we exchange views on the industry and trends, which by circumstances are transforming the tourism landscape.
Adriana got it right, in my opinion, with what is the concept today of what is a Luxury Travel. This updated concept and under her experience (in addition to long phone and whatsapp chats) encouraged her to describe this concept.
But what is luxury travel?
Defining what luxury is today is not at all simple, especially if we analyze how this concept has evolved throughout history.
Today, it is not so much about ostentation or high-end products, but rather luxury refers to experience, to something intangible.
Luxury is a concept that each person lives and feels, with a different meaning. What is or is not luxury, will depend on our experiences and our personal experience.
However, all luxury has something in common, it is perceived to be associated with an experience that has to be, above all, unique, distinctive, different, out of the ordinary, and, of course, exclusive.
There is something we can all agree on and that is that this concept of luxury is associated with other terms such as quality, excellence, differentiation and exclusivity.
Coco Chanel, stated that “luxury is a necessity that begins when necessity ends”.
With this premise, it can be said that more than changing the concept, what has occurred is a change in the perception of what luxury itself is. From being a global concept, it has become something very personal and subjective.
For us working on a concept with such personal implications and moving between such blurred definitions, organizing travel experiences based on luxury and distinction is always a challenge for us.
I know that it is not enough with what we know, with what our experience dictates, with intuition or with the story offered by the trends of the moment. We must always be one step ahead.
In the sector we find everything, since the term ostentation is still applied, but experience tells us that someone who seeks ostentation does not give value to the terms I mentioned before.
Another fundamental aspect that my friend was talking about is DISTINCTION:
“Luxury will be that feel like a local more instead of feeling like a tourist. It will be to travel without worrying about anything, feeling that your trip has been designed in a different way, out of the conventional and in an authentic way, with exclusivity, in private tours and experiencesthat are designed with care and attention to the smallest detail.
To turn a trip into a luxury experience, it is necessary to make an effort to touch the heartstrings, moving you to pleasurable experiences, intense, very pleasant sensations”.
Text: Miguel A. Gómez and Adriana Vilas
Photography: David Martín and Miguel A. Gómez