With a grand Opening Forum and party at The Ritz Carlton, staging a flawless, kaleidoscopic welcome, ILTM Asia Pacific has popped the champagne corks to celebrate the onset of its four-day 2023 show in Singapore.
Over a thousand well-heeled delegates from the Asia Pacific region and indeed the world have descended on the iconic Marina Bay Sands for four days of connection, insights and chatting all things luxury from June 19-22.
The show began on Monday evening with an opening forum and welcome party at The Ritz Carlton featuring guest speakers Sumana Rajarethnam – director of Economist Intelligence Corporate Network, Southeast Asia at The Economist; Aaron Lau – founder and CEO of Gusto Collective and Director of the ILTM Portfolio – Alison Gilmore.
This year is a moment to celebrate all things luxury travel, with the sector continuing to bear the fruits of a post-pandemic boom and no imminent signs of a slowdown, despite global economic and inflationary pressures.
In fact, according to recent data, the luxury market is only tipped to further accelerate its growth and product expansion into 2024 and 2025.
Valued at US$638 billion in 2021, the global luxury travel market is projected to soar to US$1.7 trillion by 2031, growing at 8.9 per cent CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from 2022 to 2031.
From the finest hotels, resorts and retreats in the world to tourism boards, luxury cruise lines and the most exclusive experiences money can buy, anyone worth their pink Himalayan salt in the luxury travel sector is here for what are a crucial few days of updates, hob-nobbing and business future-proofing.
It’d be fair to say that this is not your ordinary travel trade show. Wandering the impressive ILTM show floor of luxury travel brands is akin to window shopping the high-end stores upstairs at the Marina Bay Sands mall. With so many beautifully designed stands and visuals on show, It’s drool-worthy stuff.
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As purveyors of elite experiences, the sector continues transforming to meet new and younger (40-plus) luxury appetites by expertly curating and incorporating elevated wellbeing, sustainable, curious, collaborative, purposeful and community-based elements.
The good news is that booking these travel dreams has been identified as an assignment only fit for expert humans who can create and execute via outstanding, highly personalised service, which is where, of course, luxury travel advisors come in.
To fuel the ongoing opportunity, ILTM23 is welcoming a diverse mix of luxury travel advisors, with 44 per cent of them marking their inaugural presence at the Asia-Pacific gathering.
Most of these advisors hail from Australasia (60 per cent), with travel networks, including Virtuoso and Travel Associates, heavily represented alongside advisors from Southeast Asia, China, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan.
Travel Associates has an impressive 65 Travel Advisors from Australia and New Zealand joining this year’s show, all attending the brands’ Luxury Business Leader Conference in Singapore over the weekend.
These advisors add to a total of five hundred buyers from over 25 countries, including Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, of which a total of 57 per cent were new participants, further highlighting the growing interest in the luxury travel market.
ILTMs focus is on fostering luxury travel connections across the region, and this year is no exception, with a program of designed interactions involving sellers, buyers, and media representatives, including pre-scheduled meetings, nightly parties, and a VIP media programme.
Five hundred exhibitors from over 45 countries are attending this year, including Bhutan, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Indonesia, Japan, the Maldives, New Zealand, Qatar, Rwanda, Switzerland, and the United States.
It’s estimated that over 28,000 pre-scheduled appointments have been generated during the four-day show.
Alison Gilmore, Director of ILTM Portfolio with RX Global, said about this year’s event, “ILTM Asia Pacific will bring new levels of travel expertise and boundless energy. The success of ILTM is not just the appointments on the show floor, but the many different opportunities to meet, connect, network and build relationships – often officially and informally.”
ILTM23 runs until Thursday, 22, at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
For more information on ILTM, head to www.iltm.com/asia-pacific
