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ILTM continues to attract excellent buyers

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Welcoming smiles at the Qatar Tourism Authority stand

THE ‘by-invitation-only’ International Luxury Travel Market 2010 (ILTM) opened its doors to some of the world’s most elite luxury travel specialists last month in Cannes facilitating more than 47,000 individual meetings, introducing 300-plus new luxury travel products and welcoming over 1,200 VIP buyers.

“It’s incredible to find so many excellent buyers from so many countries,” commented Christian Sierralta, vice president international sales of Regent Seven Sea Cruises. “In addition, the research from our meetings has been invaluable and will enable us to absolutely focus on our target markets as soon as we return. We are particularly impressed with the calibre of buyers from Latin America.”

Ömer Ülke, director of sales and marketing of Ayada, a new private island in the Maldives, said: “We have met with over 60 VIP luxury buyers from all over the world – the most valuable three days in the countdown to our opening in May.”

Ayada is just one of the new exclusive and unusual destinations introduced at this year’s ILTM. Others included the private island Song Saa in Cambodia; a luxury sports resort Crans Ambassador, Switzerland; Japan’s first arts and craft specialised destination management company (DMC) – Artclusive; Luxury Wine Tourism in Bordeaux and Pure Escapes, the Indian Ocean’s first luxury inbound tour operator.

The four-day event was kick-started with the ILTM Ultratravel Forum where a panel discussed the future of luxury travel.

Tomas Perez of Teresa Perez Tours told attendees hot destinations for Brazilians right now include the north-Mediterranean rim, namely Portugal, Spain, France and Italy. Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Maldives, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia are also growing in popularity.

Another of the VIP panellists was Ted Teng, president and CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World, who said: “It is quality that matters today, not quantity. There are now 444 superb individual hotels, more and more expressing themselves differently from the chains. At Leading, we stress on heritage hotels that have been run by different generations.”

More than 47,000 meetings took place

For Alison Scott of Elegant Resorts, ILTM is great for networking with suppliers. She was on the lookout for new products to add both in 2011 and, looking forward, in 2012 (her clients expect her to know the future, and ILTM is the place to find it). She said, at the moment, Elegant Resorts sees long-haul growth in Africa and the Maldives, plus such mid-haul/winter sun destinations as Egypt and Tenerife.

Another panel discussion saw leaders addressing what it takes to satisfy high-yield travellers in today’s market.

Matthew Upchurch, CEO, Virtuoso believes the power of women as primary purchasers is a phenomenon of our age though that does not necessarily mean a feminine product.

Almost on cue, it was announced that The Martinez, in Cannes, will undergo a €25-million ($32-million) revamp which will see the seven-floor hotel’s four miles of corridor walls and 1.5 miles of corridor carpeting switching to grey and pink, with a rose design.

Though not necessarily a feminine move, the change does show that style is important in ultra-luxury travel and fashion is an imperative element according to Black Tomato creator Tom Marchant, who provides fashion-themed, bespoke tours for luxury clients.

Citing technology as another important issue, Small Luxury Hotels’ (SLH) CEO Paul Kerr said that though he cannot personally read SLH’s increasingly popular Japanese-language Twitter, he sees that social marketing has definitely taken priority among the group’s luxury travellers and the company has launched an iPhone application to offer its guests easy access.

The 10th edition of ILTM will take place from December 5 to 8, 2011 at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France.

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