Working in this industry, most of us can describe what we think luxury is based on what we have been fortunate enough to experience in our career. Personally, in many ways I found that because of working in the events industry, I am spoiled so much now that my personal view of luxury travel is skewed. <\/p>
What is luxury for one client may not necessarily be luxury for another \u2014 and that\u2019s what I find so interesting is the subjectiveness of the word and meaning \u2014 LUXURY.<\/p>
The word often carries a lot of weight with individuals and often is based on their upbringing and their personal values as to what luxury will mean to them. I believe this is where we see a large generational difference specifically in what travelers are looking for in luxury travel and incentives. <\/p>
This whole conversation with myself was sparked when I was sitting in an airport lounge in Costa Rica thinking to myself \u201cWow this is SO not like a Centurion Lounge experience.\u201d It wasn\u2019t because of the staff or the people, it just wasn\u2019t necessarily elevated to what I was used to (thank you, AMEX, for letting Military and spouses have platinum cards for no yearly fee!). <\/p>
My brain got to turning while I ate tomato soup and watched out over the mountains that there were people who have never experienced a lounge and better yet, there were people flying today that this was their first flight.<\/p>
We get so used to our individual routines that we often forget to think about those around us and the experiences that they have and bring with them. <\/p>
When it comes to incentives and how luxury fits in, you want your attendees to feel special \u2014 but what does special feel like for them? <\/p>
In chatting with a friend from high school, her husband\u2019s small company of 10 employees goes on a cruise from the East Coast to Bermuda each year if they hit their goals for the year. In technicality, this is considered an incentive, but would it necessarily be considered luxury? To them it was, because it wouldn\u2019t be a trip they would have taken for just the two of them otherwise \u2014 so the luxury for them was leaving the kids with their parents and having some time to themselves to reconnect. <\/p>
This is just one of the examples I can think of as to why knowing your audience is so important, because no matter the budget, no matter the group, there are ways to make it feel luxurious on an individual basis, even if it isn\u2019t something that us seasoned travelers would consider luxury.<\/p>
I think back to when I was a kid going to Disney World for the first time. Being part of a middle class family it was a luxury to go and being able to eat a character breakfast at the Grand Floridian was BEYOND luxury for me as a kid. Nowadays, if I was going to go to Disney, staying at the Grand Floridian would be luxury for me, but this goes to show that as we grow into our own our view of luxury changes. <\/p>
I fall into the Gen Z \/ Millennial generation \u2014 a very diverse generation at that. One of the things that I have found in talking with others my age in this industry and just in life, is that a 5-star hotel with a butler isn\u2019t what we are necessarily looking for in luxury accommodations. <\/p>
We as a generation, appreciate the niceties of that, but would rather have more of an experience: gastronomy, cultural, adventure, etc. We want something that is unique and not something many others have done, an undiscovered gem. <\/p>
On the other hand, I look at my grandparent\u2019s generation, who would rather have the nicest of hotel accommodations and not have to do too much but relax and enjoy. So, I will say it again, Luxury is subjective in the eye of the beholder.<\/p>
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Musings on the go from SITE Event Specialist Emily Parsons-Walker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_views_all":148,"_views_30d":14,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-20314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-inspiration"],"custom_author":{"byline":"Emily Parsons","byline_avatar":"https:\/\/siteglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/emily-parsons-3-150x150.jpeg","byline_email":"eparsons@siteglobal.com","author_id":"18628"},"yoast_head":"\n