Luxury meetings making comeback
Earlier this year, meeting and incentive planners gathered at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point near where the St. Regis Monarch Beach resort, where AIG held its infamous own retreat almost three years ago.
“The location was quite fitting, since the matter at hand was changing the negative perception of luxury meetings,” said Successful Meetings.
Luxury hotel properties can expect “robust growth” with increases in average daily rates (ADR) of 6.2 percent this year, according to Smith Travel Research and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
There are also waning perception concerns or the AIG effect, which was the bad publicity after some bankrupt companies receiving federal money were staging expensive meetings. The perception issue has apparently faded.
One example of that : if you Google “AIG effect” today, there are more than 4 million results—but few of them are recent.
It’s all part of a rebound of upscale properties.
As recently as two years ago, luxury meetings were declared by some to be “dead.” But the comeback has been surprisingly quick.
“Resorts are definitely recovering from the AIG Effect and more people are going for five-star properties,” Adam Lawhorne of Meeting Incentive Experts, told Meetingsfocus.com.
Meeting planners say at the same time, rates are also steadily climbing to levels more like three years ago.
Other key reasons for the comebak include health and wellness trends.
By David Wilkening
David
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