ALG Vacations is amping up its focus on luxury after enjoying success with the Luxe collection it debuted last year. The vacation wholesaler's promotion of luxury experiences has resonated with travelers, according to Jacki Marks, the company's global head of trade brands. Speaking with tours editor Brinley Hineman at the company's annual Ascend Conference in Cancun last month, Marks said that success has prompted ALG Vacations to expand its Luxe portfolio, including through the relaunch of Blue Sky Tours.
Jacki Marks
Q: I know everyone's definition of luxury is different, but what does luxury mean to ALG Vacations?
A: What you just said is so critical: Everyone's definition of luxury is different. We don't try to define luxury, No. 1, but that's why we only allow hotels that have the [AAA four- or five-star or Leading Hotels of the World] accreditation. Because if we start saying we like this hotel, we think it's luxury, it becomes subjective. So we have to rely on accreditations to earn a certain standard to be luxury. But ... an experience of what somebody deems as luxury can vary, which is where the Luxe concierge desk comes into play. Somebody might say chartering a yacht for the day is their definition of luxury. Well, that's not everyone's definition; not everyone can afford that definition of luxury. So yacht rentals may not be something we build into our system, but we would go contract for clients if they call us. ... We have a team that's trained to basically say, "Yes, let me figure out how to do it."
Q: How has advisor feedback influenced your approach with Luxe?
A: The destinations that we realized we weren't servicing were more the eye-opener, and that's some of what brought us into the Blue Sky relaunch. Advisors were starting to talk about the Maldives and Bali and all of that in the luxury segment, and how much luxury customers were traveling to the Indo-Pacific area. When we really took an honest look at our portfolio in that part of the world, it wasn't where it needed to be.
Q: How will Blue Sky strengthen your ability to offer luxury in that region?
A: You have to do it thoughtfully and carefully. You can't just throw some hotels in [the Luxe collection] and say, "Now we're a player in Maldives." We really had to look at all the aspects of what somebody going to the Maldives needs as a luxury customer: What kind of DMC experience? What kind of excursions do they need? We also looked at that segment and said ... we have this brand, Blue Sky Tours, that we think will resonate more with the customer going to the Indo-Pacific. So we started with a vision of saying, let's first get our brand to have the base representation of those destinations, and now we can service the luxury customer. And I really think Blue Sky is the kind of brand that fits a luxury customer going to the Indo-Pacific.
Q: What other destinations are trending for you?
A: I think that it's the areas that maybe people didn't see as luxury before that they are now. And a good example is the Dominican Republic. I think some people wouldn't define it as luxury. However, there's a new area of the Dominican Republic that just opened called Miches. I was there twice now in the last six months, and it is like a little Hawaii meets St. Lucia. It's got mountains, it's got this beautiful, beautiful scenery. And I actually had to stop for a moment and say, "I am still in the Dominican Republic, right?" The properties that are getting built out in Miches are a luxury type of product that is going to hopefully rejuvenate people to realize luxury exists in places they maybe wouldn't normally associate it with.