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Anthony Goldman, Joint Managing Director of Goldman Group has continued his messaging on the need for improved transparency and definitions of the term ‘luxury’ travel. Speaking at the Goldman Group Conference in Melbourne on Saturday, Goldman said the word has become cannibalised by “people” wanting to capitalise on the growth of high-end travel, more so since the pandemic.

“Luxury is about the way you feel. It’s a feeling from within, but sadly the term luxury has been commoditised by a lot of luxury brands and companies around the world,” he told delegates at the conference.

“We’ve got to become a little bit protective about what luxury is.”

“It’s really about the service that you receive and the fine curation of that experience.”

Goldman said luxury can be white glove service, or it can be as the tranquility of being alone, at one, on a kayak on a lake in north Queensland, switching off from the outside world – referring to a photo of himself doing just that during the pandemic.

“It’s that piece of mind that you can switch off from everything.

“But we can’t let people erase that power of luxury. And there are many products out there and services that say ‘we’re luxury’. Why? Because luxury has recovered over the last few years more than any other segment. So every other company says, ‘We’re luxury’ because it’s become a marketing term.”

“Let’s not let the other companies grab that term. We have to strive to be the best, because what it does – the cannibalisation of the world luxury, and the ‘LuxJacking’ that is going on, increases prices for our clients.”

“A lot of our clients and non-clients will check into a luxury hotel, but it’s not luxury. We need to strive for what luxury is, and work at it and protect it, and drive that agenda together.”

Speaking in greater depth on the topic with LATTE, Goldman said ‘LuxJacking’ is impacting customer expectations.

“We just have to keep an eye on that as an industry, and call it out.”

“People are hijacking the word luxury. They are using it as a marketing term. Luxury hotel. Luxury travel agency. We see it all the time.”

“I’ll continue to call it out because clients get confused. They’ll book a ‘luxury’ hotel or a cruise and they get on and it’s not at all.”

Meanwhile, Goldman heaped praise on travel juggernaut, the Flight Centre Travel Group, and their buying power.

Commenting on Goldman Travel Corporation’s collaboration with FCTG and Spencer Travel Group of Companies in establishing Link Travel Group, he praised the travel company.

“Two years ago, we had a crazy idea to create our own group in Australia. Where we were didn’t suit us anymore, and there wasn’t anywhere else to suit us. So we thought, together with Flight Centre Travel Group and Spencer Travel Group, we’ll start our own group, Link.”

“[Link] is a really interesting group. We are young. We’re growing. We have many members in that group and we look forward to developing that group in the future.”

“My first meeting with Flight Centre was on Zoom. It was during the pandemic. I’d never met anyone in Flight Centre and I was quiet.”

“I said to them, I can’t believe we’re sleeping with the devil,” he quipped.

“We are, and they are not the devil,” he added. “They’re an amazing, amazing, amazing company that we’ll continue to work with behind the scenes.”

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