Luxury Escapes is set to open a physical travel store in Westfield Bondi Junction, Sydney, with hiring currently underway. This marks the company’s first brick‑and‑mortar presence in New South Wales.
The new location comes after Luxury Escapes opened a flagship store at Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne, launching a pop‑up in November 2022 and later opening a permanent store in July 2023. The Chadstone space features large LCD screens, barista coffee, French Champagne, a VIP bar and events space, enabling visitors to book exclusive in‑store escapes to destinations such as Bali, Maldives and Australia offering bucket‑list tours, spa treatments and grand‑opening access
Co-founder Adam Schwab told The Australian, “People associate bricks and mortar with more brand trust and quality, and it’s an investment…there’s definitely a cohort of people, maybe 10 to 15 per cent, who want to buy in-person (and) our average in-store order value is four times that of online.”
The Bondi outlet will occupy space within Westfield Bondi Junction, a major Eastern Suburbs shopping hub with 331 retailers and high foot traffic.
Why Bondi Junction? Understanding the location strategy
Westfield Bondi Junction draws shoppers from affluent suburbs and tourists heading to Bondi Beach. It benefits from strong retail gravity and connectivity, served by bus and rail. All making it a strategic launch site. Bondi Junction, along with Paddington and other Eastern Suburbs precincts, has become a hotspot for luxury retail brands such as Dior and Louis Vuitton.
Sydney ranks among the world’s top cities for high‑net‑worth individuals. In 2024, it held eighth place globally, while population growth and rising incomes are expected to boost retail spending into the 2030s. That trend includes demand for travel-related retail experiences.
Store concept: Blending experience with sales
Job ads for the Bondi Junction location, posted on the Luxury Escapes careers page, describe the Bondi store as “ground‑breaking” and “far from your ordinary retail travel store”. The objective is to ensure “customers feel that their holiday begins the moment they step through our doors”.
Managers will lead teams in delivering a “captivating and enchanting” in‑store service, combining personalised trip planning with real‑time deals. Performance reporting, customer‑escalation handling and conversion-focused follow‑ups are key responsibilities.
Applicants must have prior travel‑retail or team‑lead experience. Key requirements emphasise people management, problem‑solving and delivering “an exceptional level of customer service”.
Luxury Escapes promotes its culture as a top employer, claiming awards from the Australian Financial Review as a “Best Places to Work” and offering staff perks like health programs, flexible schedules, birthday leave, travel discounts and regular events .
Offline meets online: why this matters for agents
Luxury Escapes’ move into brick-and-mortar retail marks a deeper shift into hybrid travel sales, offering complete holiday packages that include accommodation, tours and flights. While this model enhances consumer convenience, it also positions the brand more squarely in the retail travel space traditionally serviced by agents.
The store debut signals a strategic expansion from purely digital to experiential, brand-led retail. Located where affluent consumers shop, and where many travel agents are also active, this approach could amplify Luxury Escapes’ visibility and market share.
For travel professionals, this move reinforces a growing trend, people still value personalised, face-to-face support when planning holidays. While Luxury Escapes’ hybrid model may reshape booking behaviour, it also highlights a key opportunity for agents: to lean into their unique, human-led service. The presence of travel retail stores is a strong signal that personal connection still matters in the booking journey.
What’s next?
With Melbourne’s Chadstone flagship open and Bondi on the way, expansion into other states, such as Queensland or Western Australia, or into additional regions of Victoria and New South Wales may also be on the horizon. These potential openings would align with the broader growth of luxury retail across Australia and reflect continued investment in face-to-face travel engagement within high-value consumer markets.
KARRYON UNPACKS: Luxury Escapes is anchoring itself in high‑spend retail precincts, Bondi Junction being the latest. For travel agents, this is a sign that personalised service still holds value in a digital world. As the brand expands its hybrid retail footprint, agents can take this as proof that human-led travel planning remains essential.
