As 2007 winds down, we can reflect on the challenges we endured – teetering economy, soaring gas prices, crashing real estate market, and unrest around the world. But KWE Group believes luxury travel markets will continue to expand, while consumers of high-end products will hone their tastes ever more pointedly. The urge for self expression will spread, while a new ethical and environmental consciousness will take a firmer hold. These are among the many forces that will help dictate luxury tourism trends and lifestyle trends in 2008.

Luxury travel markets will continue to expand, while consumers of high-end products will hone their tastes ever more pointedly. The urge for self expression will spread, while a new ethical and environmental consciousness will take a firmer hold. These are among the many forces that will help dictate luxury tourism trends and lifestyle trends in 2008.

1. Traditional demographics won’t define luxury consumers. Buying behavior, geography, interests and connoisseurship will become the new definition of wealth, particularly in emerging markets where luxury status will be displayed outwardly via symbols: luxury goods and labels such as Louis Vuitton handbags or Chanel cuffs, ubiquitous among their peers.

Mature affluents are gravitating to “stealth wealth.” They seek luxury travel products that express personal interests and style, and those which require connoisseurship. They prize uniqueness and limited-edition luxe: originals, one-of-a-kind objects, which are expensive and highly collectible. Think men’s shirts with the monograms inside the sleeves, bespoke Hermes and non-branded, one-of-a-kind hotels that reflect the owner’s exquisite taste, selectivity and demanding standards. To know and appreciate these products, one must savor subtle details and be in the loop.

2. Relationships with family and friends take center stage. Accelerating since 9/11 and fueled by a backlash against 24/7 work schedules and dehumanizing technology, a tourism trend that is growing at a faster rate than all other sectors is family travel. A recent survey of American Express travel agents revealed a significant rise in luxury travel among families; 82% wanted high-end hotels with kids programs and 56% were traveling with nannies. Parents, grandparents and friends are looking to travel as a way to reunite, and to celebrate life’s landmark events. Business trips with the whole family will become as common as tag-along spouses, while high-end business hotels and resorts will get on board with family travel trends, rolling out the red carpet with special suites and villas.

3. Creativity checks in. As Thomas Friedman writes in “The World is Flat,” we are living in the Talent Age. Companies will need to innovate to set themselves apart by finding new solutions and alliances to tap into fresh talent. The right side of the brain will trump the left as creativity and design sell. Look to more companies to follow the lead of Richemont, a Swiss luxury goods conglomerate (Cartier, Montblanc, Dunhill and others), which established The Creative Academy, its own international Master of Arts in Design school, an alliance that bears creative fruits.

4. Concierges are king. A lack of time and information overload for the affluent to sort through, and they will pay experts to create lives they desire. As a lifestyle trend, personal concierges are all the rage. They’re curators for sourcing flowers, a home or even friends, even helping clients define their own tastes and style.

In retail, it’s “curated consumption” – stores offering the finest designs, already individually selected by the proprietor for buyers of electronics, fashion, furniture, etc. There’s an online model – www.couturelab.com– a brilliant webzine that promises to be the template for other luxury products. Luxury travel brands will be expected to go beyond providing just luxury service and hospitality in their hotel, cruise ship or airline. They will be pressed to offer quality, inside-track information and time-saving services, such as Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class Wing – a fast track security channel to get passengers from limo to lounge in ten minutes or less.

5. Altruism and social responsibility are a big lifestyle trend. Differing from the cause-related marketing of the 90s, today’s wealthy want to believe their consumption is helping to save the planet or has an altruistic motive behind it. In a recent HSBC luxury goods report, a graphic of American psychologist Abraham Maslow detailed an emotional needs hierarchy. The top, being linked to a higher cause. He said: “The future of luxury will be about imparting real meaning into a product.” The product itself must be sustainable and show a genuine sensitivity to community. The operative words here, as succinctly put by London’s Future Laboratory, are the three “T”s: truth, transparency and trust. A good example of the future’s responsible luxury, courtesy of Jeffrey Miller, consultant and columnist for Luxury Briefing: a Gucci Green Car.

6. Health, well-being and looking good continue to move up in financial priorities. The New York Times recently documented the lives and beauty budgets of three women in different parts of the country. One, a real estate agent from Los Angeles, admitted she regularly spent several thousand dollars monthly just for “maintenance,” just to “be in the game.” Lifestyle trends such as this fueled the spa and medical tourism boom in 2007. Spas are going well beyond the dedicated spa outlet or the home spa, and branching out into mobile spas, “macho” spas for men, and even pets. We are seeing the advent of medical real estate, where entire communities are in the works, such as Cooper Life at Craig Ranch in Texas. Monthly fees provide luxuries, including annual physical examinations and doctor house calls. Five star hotels are increasingly offering medi-healthy packages in alliance with neighboring medical facilities. Next? The buzzword will be “age management” programs to help the rich look and feel young.

7. Saving time is the greatest luxury among travel trends. Any service that achieves this will be a big winner (as evidenced by the number of jet sales and private jet charter companies serving time-starved travelers. Major airports are becoming luxury travel/shopping destinations, targeting power spenders on layovers. Aside from the bevy of high-end watches and handbags, Heathrow’s Terminal 5, set to open in March 2008, will have a two-story Harrod’s department store, stocking only luxury brands. Additionally, numerous companies are springing up to train armies of professional household and estate managers (butlers, maids, personal chefs, wine stewards, etc.). There’s even a new real estate development in Umbria that offers farmhouses with onsite architect, contractors, artisans and maintenance staff, so the owner can move in with just a suitcase. Lenovo just introduced its ThinkPad Reserved Edition ($4999) that comes with supple leather case and in-person assistance on call, guaranteed within four hours.

8. Big money follows culture and is big news. From Miami’s burgeoning Art Basel to the celeb-filled Sundance Film Festival, publicity seekers should take note of the international coverage that cultural events are receiving. Art tie-ins also make good financial sense: Sotheby’s introduced a co-branded World Elite MasterCard, giving cardholders VIP access to cultural events and receptions, even guided tours of newly excavated, private areas of Angkor Wat. More and more hotels are realizing that art attracts a certain art-savvy clientele, who are happy to spend freely on suites, spa treatments and fine wines. We will continue to see hotels become houses of culture, with in-house museums, curators, artists as interior designers, and stepped up marketing efforts that embrace culture. We will see more luxury retail and commercial spaces being treated as curatorial, artistic projects, such as Ferragamo’s flagship in New York: a boutique, corporate office and museum under one roof. Seen, too, are online sites such as Artipolis, a private members club for individuals who meet on- and off-line to share their passion for the arts.

9. The affluent are sated with product and look to unique experiences. Luxury travel is being redefined as experiences as consumers are inundated with products. Today’s well-traveled affluents want new, exciting experiences; to be intrigued, entertained and enlightened. They will spend top dollar to be first, or reach the most remote, exotic places. Witness how quickly suborbital flights and space travel took off. Taking advantage of lifestyle trends, marketers need to think big by turning any product into a life-enhancing experience. This can mean asking how visitors could have interactive experiences instead of passively visiting the Forum in Rome or the pyramids of Teotihuacán. When selling multi-million-dollar condos, marketers must go beyond touting professional style kitchens, but throw in a dinner party cooked by a personal chef when the buyer receives the keys, or a personal training session in a state-of-the-art triathlete fitness center. A travel trend that rates highly is acquiring knowledge and expressing one’s creative side. Hotels, resorts and destination management companies are going well beyond cooking classes to offer everything from videography to tea ceremonies and instruction in the visual arts; even gallantry at Paris’ Belle Ecole.

10. Space, space and more space is luxury. I recall what contemporary music composer John Cage said: the greatest luxuries are time and space. Especially when it comes to first class travel, airlines are vying to outdo rivals in offering the world’s largest airplane bed. Witness Singapore Airlines’ new private suites with double beds that sleep two. It will mean over-sizing hotel guest rooms and ship cabins, not just plush interior furnishings and amenities. Top hotel suites will get larger and pricier, appealing to the super wealthy accustomed to homes of 10,000 sq.ft. or more.

Orca or the Killer whale, is the largest species of Delphinidae (oceanic dolphin family). They can be found in the world’s vast oceans, from the icy cold waters of the Arctic and Antartica to tropical warm waters.

They often get a bad rap, but feed mostly on fish. Some populations will hunt warm-blooded marine mammals, such as seals, sea lions and sometimes even larger whales.

Seeing one of the majestic killer whales can be a once in a lifetime experience.  Esther Kiviat wrote an article about her first-hand account seeing a killer whale near Vancouver Island.  Full article

We know that high fashion can cost a pretty penny.  Many are willing to buy the trendiest fashion items, no questions asked.  Others want to wear or accessorize the best but don’t want to pay top dollar. But they are willing to pay for a fake or imitation items such as a Goyard handbag.

“LOOK sharp!” Waving a passer-by to his cart at Madison Avenue and 67th Street, Omar, the vendor, pointed to the logo on one of his most popular items, a canvas tote bag patterned in a familiar-looking interlocking chevron. “This one is the wrong writing,” he murmured.

The correct “writing,” he went on expertly, appears only on his premium fake: a copy of the Goyard Saint Louis carryall, which in recent months has supplanted styles by Vuitton and Fendi as a totem of blue-blood chic. In the hierarchy of knockoffs, most of Omar’s bags are credible impostors. Like the patrician originals, which are sold in Manhattan only at Barneys New York and Bergdorf Goodman, they display the Goyard logo and Paris address discreetly on their sides.

Simone Fee, an interior designer in New York, studied the cream of the fakes, intending to pick one up as a holiday gift for her mother. The asking price, though, stopped her dead. A steal at $135, compared with around $1,000 for the original, it was steep just the same. Even for this Cadillac of counterfeits, “that price is a bit silly,” Ms. Fee said, adding, witheringly, “Everyone in New York is walking around with one of these.”

She may have been stretching a point. But to judge by the dozens of Goyard sightings last week at the corner of Lexington and 59th Street alone, the mock Goyard in aggressively sunny colors like corn yellow, tangerine and Bazooka pink is the most coveted knockoff of the season. If it is not as swell as the original, which can be personalized with the buyer’s monogram and colorful stripes, it is this year’s faux-status holiday gift of choice to those buying them in multiples for loved ones and friends.

“I think people get a kick out of copies,” said Roseann Hirsch, a book packager in Manhattan. “It’s a fun present even if you don’t use it as a serious bag.”

Ms. Hirsch, who owns an authentic Goyard and some pricey imitations, considers herself a connoisseur of fakes, having purchased faux Hermès bags in Beijing, along with a perfectly convincing Vuitton knockoff priced at $6.99. Like others of her style-smart friends, she is disinclined to make snobbish distinctions.

“I’ve discovered that if something costs $50 or it costs $1,000, my interest in it is similar,” she said. As a fashion trophy, “the item has a shelf life in my mind; once it runs its life span, I don’t want to see it again.”

Peri Wolfman, a writer and product designer, is considering buying a top-of-the-line fake Goyard for her daughter-in-law. “It could make a good stocking stuffer,” she mused, and provide “a little fashion thrill.”

“But you have to get the good copy,” Ms. Wolfman stipulated, not those shoddy pretenders now bargain priced at $40 that are popping up around Midtown. The discerning are quick to spot the replicas’ vinyl handles and piping, which are far less pliable than Goyard’s signature luggage leather and the leather trim on the best of the quality knockoffs.

At lunch with friends not long ago, she compared her classy counterfeit with their originals. “We looked at the details, the lining, the stitching,” she recalled. “I promise you, you couldn’t tell the difference.”

Such assertions do not amuse Maison Goyard, the 144-year-old Parisian luggage maker that prides itself on pedigree. “Goyard is fully committed to its brand protection,” said Charlotte Letard, a company spokeswoman. She added that the company is addressing the issue of street vendors through targeted civil seizure orders, and is working closely with Customs to seize counterfeit merchandise.

A decade ago, Jean Michel Signoles, a fashion entrepreneur, bought the somewhat stodgy Goyard brand from descendants of the founders, dusted it off and reissued the classic bags in spiffy new colors. The gambit worked, attracting consumers on the prowl for the next big status sign. To retain an aura of hauteur — reinforced on the company’s Web site by promotional copy that reads, “Each detail of fabrication whispers exclusivity” — Goyard sells luggage, handbags, wallets, agendas and canvas-rimmed doggie bowls in only 12 stores around the world.

For all the best efforts of law enforcement to stem the billion-dollar world counterfeit trade (in the United States, a first-time counterfeiter can face up to 10 years in prison and $2 million in fines), fake Goyards continue to proliferate.

Only last spring, “You really had to look for a good copy,” Ms. Wolfman said. Now trophy hunters are unearthing high-price knockoffs at stalls on the Upper East Side — especially along Madison Avenue between 65th and 75th Street.

Earlier this month, Ben Little, a visitor from London, scoured the Goyard shop at Barneys for a suitable bag for his girlfriend. Informed by a shopper that passable copies could be found only a few blocks up the street, Mr. Little inquired, “Where did you say, 67th Street?”

Then he turned to his friend and said playfully, “That’s where I’m going to get your gift.”

Article written by Hiroko Masuiki for The New York Times  Full Story

Luxury yachts have always been gleaming white and mainly bear the same, elegant design features. Wally has re-written the rules altogether.

The Monaco-based boat maker’s yachts, power yachts and smaller boats all carry design characteristics utterly undreamt of until they came about. Their dark, mysterious looks are undoubtedly head-turning, their power frightening. The minimalist lines don’t give anything away; indeed they hide the yacht’s interior which, in the larger variants such as the outrageous Wallypower 118, is simply spine-tingling. It is instantly evident that design plays the lead role in these beauties. After all, any power yacht which can house a space that changes from dining room to small conference area must be special.

Wally’s boats are nothing short of prodigious. To find out just how and why these seemingly fictitious concepts of arresting design exist, I chatted with Luca Bassani, Wally’s founder, president and mastermind. Incredibly, Mr Bassani not only takes charge of the whole business, but is the brains behind every single piece of marine art that comes out of Wally’s headquarters in Monaco.

“What inspires you to come up with such striking yachts?”
“The functionality and the need to find simple solutions, lighter and more neat.”

“What inspires Wally’s designers to come up with such striking yachts?
“The functionality and the need to find simple solutions, lighter and more neat.”

“Do you feel that your unusual designs detriment your sales, or enhance them?”
“We think that, as with any smart innovation, it will enhance our sales in the long term.”

“You are a much fresher, less well-established company than the likes of Sunseeker and Princess. Do you think boats like yours are a shape of things to come for all boat companies, or will your style remain unique?”
“On the sail yachts, we have already carved the whole market and everybody is copying our solutions and our style. It will also happen in the power boat sector and, in fact, it is already starting to happen.”

“You are based in Monaco, a place I love as well. Do you feel that basing Wally there is good for the company’s image?”
“We think that Monaco is, along with Palma, the capital of the Mediterranean yachting industry.”

“Where do your buyers mainly come from? I haven’t seen many in Monaco’s port.”
“Forty percent of our clients come from Germany, thirty percent from Italy and the rest from all over the world.”

“Has the recent film exposure of your boats been helpful to interest and sales?”
“For the moment, a lot of interest has been generated, which translates into an increase of the brand awareness and value- not the sales yet.”

“Which model sells best?”
“In terms of number of orders, the WallyTender. In terms of turnover, the biggest sail yachts generate most.”

“Realistically, do you think future interest will be based more around the smaller boats or larger yachts?”
“As we are perceived as a luxury brand, we believe we are going to experience the higher interest in the larger yachts market.”

“What do you think hold more importance; the interior of a yacht or its exterior design?”
“I personally think that it’s the exterior, though the market shows that the clients give more emphasis to the exteriors.”

“You provide a charter service for your yachts. Does this service lure many people into finally buying a Wally?”
“It has happened already, and it will always happen, as a small percentage of the charterers.”

“Finally, what does the future hold? Are there any big plans or new designs?”
“A lot of news and innovations in the power boat market, and also in the mega sail yachts.”

A true innovator of the yacht industry, Mr Bassani is tight-lipped about what hasn’t yet left Wally’s design room. I don’t think I could blame him; having revolutionised the face of yacht design forever, who knows what’s next from Wally?

Personal jets have long been the preferred transportation choice of execs and the rich & famous. In fact, most top executives will do anything to bypass the delays and hassles of commercial air travel.  A growing number of pilots, day trippers and business travellers with some extra dollars are finding a new way to join the jet set.

Small private planes better known as “very light jets,” or VLJs, are starting to appear in the sky and on the tarmacs of small local airports across the country. Several companies plan to amass fleets of the new VLJs and offer air-taxi and on-demand charter flight services once they get federal approval.

First-hand displays of the aircraft, called the “SUVs of the sky,” drew scores of curious aviation buffs at a recent trade show in Hartford, CT for private pilots and aircraft owners. But while several of those attending already own small propeller-driven planes, they said their bank balances fell far short of the $1.6 million to $3 million needed to buy one of the little jets.

“If I had an extra million and a half on hand, sure, I’d buy one. I’d have to win the lottery first,” said Lars Margolies of Gardiner, N.Y., eyeing one of the jets at Hartford’s Brainard Airport with New York City resident Rob Boettcher.

Boettcher, who currently owns a four-seat Piper Archer, said very light jets are getting a lot of buzz in circles of aviation because they are extremely attractive to people who want to upgrade, and because of the potential cottage industries that new air-taxi services could spawn.

Among those services: Linear Air of Concord, Mass., already has one of the mini-jets and four more are expected to arrive in the next several months. The company plans to expand its fleet to 15 sometime in 2008. Linear Air already offers charter flights on eight-seat Cessna Caravan turboprops, but company president and CEO William Herp said the new jets – which will carry two pilots and three passengers – are lighter and faster. It will start using its new jet as soon as the Federal Aviation Administration gives the go-ahead, he said, adding he hopes that will be sometime this fall.

“We have customers chomping at the bit to try them. I literally get e-mails and phone calls every day from people with questions about it,” Herp said.

Another company, a Chicopee, Mass.-based startup called Pogo Jets, plans an initial public offering of stock to raise money to order more than two dozen of the jets, with an eye toward launching service in 2009. Pratt & Whitney Canada, a division of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., manufactures the PW600-series engines used by many mini-jet makers. The engines, small enough to fit in the trunk of a midsized car, can be built in eight hours each, and can power a little jet for more than 1,600 kilometres on a single tank of fuel depending on weather conditions. In fact, the mini-jet market has helped Pratt & Whitney’s Canada operation become its fastest-growing segment, Pratt spokeswoman Jennifer Whitlow said. It expects to deliver more than 3,000 of the engines to customers this year, she said.

“Pratt took a big and ambitious dive into the market, and going with them was one of the best decisions we’ve made,” said Andrew Broom, a spokesman for Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation, which is using Pratt engines on its new Eclipse 500 VLJ.

That craft, which starts at $1.5 million, was certified by the FAA in 2006. Those are the jets that Linear Air already has on order, and which Pogo Jets hopes to acquire. Eclipse has more than 2,600 orders for its new jet, which can be equipped with leather seats, an entertainment system with satellite radio and other perks. More than 50 of the planes already have been delivered to buyers.

The slightly larger Citation Mustang personal jet, produced by Wichita-based Cessna Aircraft Co., also received the FAA’s approval in 2006. Cessna has been building Citation planes since 1973, and its Mustang VLJ started drawing interest from potential buyers almost immediately after it was announced in 2002.

While some air-taxi services have favoured the smaller Eclipse jets, many well-heeled industry leaders, companies and individual plane owners and pilots have gravitated to the Cessna Mustang. And as with Eclipse, demand for the Cessna has been so robust that it’s outpaced supply. A Citation Mustang ordered today, costing between $2.5 million and $3 million, will be on the owner’s tarmac in fall 2010.

Article written by Stephanie Reitz – The Associated Press

Whether it’s Christmas or any time during the year, we all want to own the coolest hi-tech gadgets available. You can start with the $8,000 Electrobike Pi– a Ferarri-red, stylish, electric bicycle.  It’s weighs less than 60 pounds and can be peddle powered or by a 36-volt nickel metal hydride battery.

How about the $3,875 MyFountain, an automated beverage dispenser?  It remembers specific drinks by person and includes password protection to prevent the cocktail menu from being accessed by under-age persons.

Take a further at these and nine more cool hi-tech gadgets. Full article

Park City, Utah started its humble beginnings as a small silver mining town in the Wasatch Mountains.  No more.  This winter mecca is now a hot ski destination, but also an appealing place for second home buyers.  Real estate is booming and baby boomers are quickly snatching up homes in the $2.5 million-plus range.

In the Tuhaye community, homes have been selling for an average of $600 a square foot! Park City offers home buyers breathtaking views, world-class ski resorts, as well  as a charming, historic community that definitely hasn’t forgotten its humble roots.  Full A rticle

The explosion of Wi-Fi to connect laptop computers to the Internet is amazing.  But now a new trend is evolving just as quickly.  Wi-Fi, the short-range high-speed technology , can now connect to cell phones, music players, game consoles, cameras and many more. This shift will be a great benefit to consumers as Wi-Fi makes electronic devices more useful and easier to use.

“Products involved in media transfer from point A to point B without using a wire are becoming very popular,” said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. “We’re moving past the early adopters into mainstream consumers.”  Full article

Leonardo Da Vinci, the Renaissance genius, has raised new awareness to his famous “The Last Supper” painting.

An Italian musician thinks there are musical notes encoded in his most popular work of art. Giovanni Maria Pala drew the five lines of a musical staff over the painting and associated the loaves of bread and the hands of Jesus and his Apostles as notes.  He claims the result ”sounds like a requiem.”

Over the years, many people have studied Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” painting for hidden clues.  Papa in his new book, says he began studying the painting in 2003 out of curiosity.  He feels the musical score is “almost painfully slow but musical.”  Full article

Author J.K. Rowling was named “Entertainer of the Year” by Entertainment Weekly. Her success with the “Harry Potter” series of books is staggering.  Revenue from all “Harry Potter related sources is about $15 billion. 400 million books sold worldwide. $4.5 billion in worldwide box office ticket gross sales, for all five of the “Harry Potter” movie films. A truly incredible feat.

What J.K. Rowling has done to drive such strong growth in book reading is undeniable. Children of all ages are hooked on her books.  Far beyond the words she offers in her books, one can find an enriched culture wrapped around “Harry Potter” and the ensemble of lively characters.

What’s next for Rowling? She has a few ideas in mind – one involves children and one for adults. Based on her successful past, whatever comes next will most likely be another hit. Full article

Your favorite high-end restaurant has perfect ambiance, impeccable service, and the the food is to die for. The problem is you can never get in to some of the best restaurants because they’re almost always booked well in advance.

In Napa CA.,  the French Laundry restaurant is booked sometimes two months in advance, making it frustrating for anyone dying to eat there. It just received two stars from the Michelin Guide, so those reservations will be even harder to come by.  The trick is to keep calling and get on their email wait list hoping for a cancellation notice.

The French Laundry, isn’t alone.  Take a look at ten top restaurants where finally getting a reservation can feel like a gift from above. Full article