ASPIRE ROUND-TABLE A TALE OF
TWO QUARTERS The Aspire board’s latest round-table sought to make sense of this year’s ups and downs, and considered the impact of Airbnb and the drivers of customer loyalty
The panellists thought the luxury market this year had become random and difficult to predict. Jeanne Lally said: “Our top end is holding up extremely well and I’m surprised by the amount people are spending. But there is no pattern. For example, the start to the year was slow when all the signs were it was going to be great, but May was incredible.” John Sullivan also expressed surprise,
saying: “This year, with the economy doing better, interest rates staying low, and lower unemployment, it seemed like all the signs were positive. “If you go back to Black Friday at the end of November, it was a record weekend for sales – people were buying stuff for no real reason. But putting money on credit cards earlier than usual could have had a knock-on effect on January and February. “Also, in the middle of the market
people haven’t been buying sofas or washing machines etc, due to general austerity, but now they are
spending money on those things. “Luxury business for Advantage is
up 12% versus last year and that goes across long-haul, cruise and niche holidays. Mass-market cruising is more challenging, as is short-haul. “Long-haul has seen massive growth and kept going, with average prices also up, so this isn’t being driven by price. “But a lot is booked within 90 days of
travel, which is unusual.” Amy Sharpe also reported that peaks
were not quite as good as expected. She said: “There is a marked difference between Q1 and Q2. So far it’s been a good year with some big bookings and average spend has gone up.” John Bevan said: “Private jets have had a tremendous year. At PrivateFly all budgets are being hit and they are really far ahead. It seems there are people with a lot of disposable income saying let’s just go somewhere, with quite short lead-in times.” Ruth Hilton said Gold Medal had seen good growth from the
ATTENDEES
John Bevan Spafinder Wellness 365
Andy Harmer Clia UK & Ireland
Ruth Hilton Gold Medal Travel
Jeanne Lally Travel Bureau
Amy Sharpe eWaterways/Ponant
John Sullivan Advantage Travel Partnership
independent sector, but that the first six months of 2015 had been ultra- competitive: “Price matching has increased and it is becoming the norm with the majority of operators.” Lally agreed that price matching in the premium market had increased and that lead-in times in the ultra-luxury market were getting shorter. She said: “They don’t need to plan ahead – they simply say ‘we need to go and can you sort it out’. There are constraints,
aspire september 2015 — 33
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