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The search for luxurious hospitality experiences increasingly coincides with the imperative to mitigate negative impacts in the pursuit of greater sustainability. This is a task often understood as being complex particularly in the context of luxury hospitality which often resonates with conspicuous consumption. This chapter uses a case study approach to analyze the complex relationship between luxury tourism and sustainability. The study focuses on the development of “luxury” from a materialistic perspective toward an experience economy and relates this to the concept of sustainability and agreements relevant to the tourism industry. The environmental impact of luxury hospitality is then discussed. The case study on properties in Costa Rica, South Africa, the Maldives, Vietnam, and French Polynesia focuses on philosophy, facilities, energy and waste consumption, food and beverage, conservational and educational activities, and alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The focus is on the properties and shows limitations in that it is not applicable to the whole tourist journey and experience. All properties understand luxury as based on experiences and involvement in nature. Measures to mitigate environmental impact and foster conservational and educational activities are mainstream practices. Comparing the cases with academic literature on luxury, sustainability, ecotourism, and environmental policies underline that sustainability-driven luxury hospitality shows valuable steps toward a more sustainable product but is ultimately faced with the dilemma of taking into consideration and ultimately mitigating the impacts of the entire travel value chain.

This concluding paper offers an overview of the academic and practitioner approaches to the issue of well-being in the luxury yachting sector of tourism, highlighting the significance of the theme issue. The paper proposes a Model of Luxury Yachting Research illustrating the relationship between the areas directly affecting well-being and suggests that the Model can serve as a road map for further research in the field.

This paper argues that luxury yachting could be considered as a form of tourism which contributes to the well-being of a wide range of stakeholders relevant to the sector, and not only to those who experience their holidays on board luxury yachts. It builds on the range of contributions in this theme issue, using a synthesis of the knowledge generated from this publication.

The paper argues that luxury yachting as a specific and unique sector of tourism, which presents itself as a meta economic sector, is representative of the evolution of global finance and the global economy. Additionally, luxury yachting can act as a transformative societal force which positively encompasses and impacts its relevant stakeholders and sectors. The synthesises of the articles presented in this issue identifies four main areas of further academic enquiry in the field.

The value of this paper is that it presents luxury yachting as a prism which enables the investigation of the issue of well-being in the context of luxury tourism. This theme issue has addressed the well-being aspect of the luxury yachting tourism and, by doing so, has emphasised the significance of luxury yachting as a field of research which is ripe for extensive academic investigation. The outcomes of the issue have informed the Model of Luxury Yachting Research, a road map which is offered as a guide for further research in the field of luxury tourism.

Luxury fashion brands have started differentiating their investment strategies and enlarging their sectors of activity, for instance, entering tourism. The overlay between traditional behaviors and innovative strategies has left a mark on the cities and neighborhoods. This chapter explores the spatial distribution of luxury tourism infrastructure in Milan. This transition does not affect only preeminent locations, such as monumental squares and high streets, but also places traditionally excluded from the “luxury circuits.” The location of 5-star hotels and premium tourism facilities in Milan (Michelin restaurants and spas) differ from the general tourism infrastructure. The study identifies polarization in the touristic offer and a parallel influence in the real estate market.

By celebrating tourism destinations through cruise collections, luxury brands open to new influences. They may develop deeper connections with certain geographical areas, but may also challenge the quintessentially national dimension of luxury brand culture. The best example of synergies between a luxury fashion brand and tourism destinations are the Christian Dior cruise collections with Maria Grazia Chiuri at the helm. This chapter is to understand how cruise collections may enhance luxury fashion houses' brand culture through the connections they develop with tourism destinations. Further, the chapter assesses the extent to which destinations can benefit from the exposure provided by luxury fashion brands' cruise collections.

The tension between individual and collective well-being is at the core of the macromarketing perspective, and transformative luxury research (TLR) has recently begun to consider this in the context of luxury consumption. This conceptual paper reviews TLR in the setting of the tourism and hospitality industry.

The study is based on a literature review in the field of marketing and tourism management.

The authors propose a TLR–management model (MM), which identifies the link between TLR and well-being, as well as four elements that are important for the success of luxury innovations: risk; trust; ethics and ambidextrous management practices. Further studies will be able to apply this conceptual model in diverse luxury markets to develop more industry-specific versions of it but should always maintain the model’s focus on individual and collective well-being to ensure that it supports the growth of transformative luxury in the future.

The research has highlighted the benefits (individual and community well-being) of transformative research in the field of luxury products and services, but also the requirements (taking risk, trust and ambidextrous management) to achieve this transformative stage.

The study provides a guideline to be followed by the luxury yachting industry to reach its transformative potential.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the dark side of luxury yachting, with specific focus on the treatment and well-being of yacht crews.

The paper is based on a literature review of key terms: luxury yachting; yacht crews; well-being; maritime tourism and yacht guests.

The paper observes luxury yachting as having a hidden dark side that is impacting on the overall well-being of yacht crews who are responsible for producing luxury yachting experiences. It discusses scholarly research and industry reports into both luxury yachting tourism and yacht crew management and experiences.

The success of the Below Deck television franchise has had a direct influence on the growing phenomenon of luxury yachting tourism. Behind the happy smiles and grandeur of the luxury experience, there is a dark side to this booming industry that requires further investigation and resolutions to enhance yacht crew well-being without impacting the guest experience.

This paper presents luxury yachting as a growing tourism phenomenon. It explores the dark side of this industry from the experiences of yacht crews, who are generally seen, but not heard.

Despite the severe impact of the COVID-19, Maldives was one of the top destinations which witnessed decent tourist arrival amid the pandemic. This study aims to analyze luxury hospitality experiences of guests amid COVID-19 pandemic.

This study is exploratory in nature. This study analyses 4,302 real-time customer reviews using sentiment and thematic analysis with the help of NVIVO 12 plus and Leximancer.

The findings suggest travel products as well as services associated with luxury resorts needs to be revisited. Staff needs to be more professional and must be proactive while redesigning services specially in situations like pandemic. While redesigning services in situations like pandemic, staff needs to be proactive, professional and must follow all protocols. Major negative experiences included long waiting time to avail frill services, privacy intrusion by bloggers and influencers, service quality issues. We recommend enhancing service quality followed by investing more in training and development, increasing the number of foreign languages spoken by staff and disseminating localized culinary experiences will enhance the experience quality with guests.

This study has several limitations: first, this study limited itself to 15 luxury resorts of Maldives, which may not serve as a true representation of all luxury resorts of Maldives. The next limitation of this study is that the authors have collected customer reviews from TripAdvisor only, and the reviews were only in English language.

The findings of the research can be beneficial for the policymakers, hospitality practitioners and academicians who study luxury tourism industry to carve appropriate strategies for enhancing the customers’ luxury experience like leveraging customization in all areas and enhancing service quality, food quality, training and development of employees.

Maldives has become one of the most expensive traveler destinations and is home to world’s most expensive resorts. This study is original in nature and has a forward-looking approach which studies the disruptive effect of pandemic, intangible nature of luxury as a concept can be used by hospitality industry to redesign the luxury customer experience which can improve marketing strategies aiming to potentiate this niche. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study will be the first one to capture the real customer experiences of luxury resorts of Maldives.

This introductory paper aims to provide an overview of the significance of the theme issue.

The article explains why luxury yachting can be considered as a form of tourism which contributes to the well-being of stakeholders in the sector.

Luxury yachting (tourism) can be considered as a meta economic sector because luxury yachting is a representative of the evolution of global finance and economics. Luxury yachting is also a transformative sector of activity which positively spills over to other sectors and stakeholders, contributing to the well-being of a large community.

The value of this paper is that the paper presents luxury yachting as a prism which enables the investigation of other topics. For this reason, the article refers to luxury yachting as a meta-sector of the economy and a field of research.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to review and synthesise key concepts in luxury with key concepts in well-being to provide a framework to better understand how luxury well-being propositions can be designed and delivered for the growing superyacht marketplace.

The paper is based on a literature review of key terms: object-related, symbolic and experiential luxury, co-creation of value and well-being.

This paper aims to observe the size, growth and opportunity of the superyacht market. Moreover, the paper observes that the locus of luxury value is shifting towards experiences and that to achieve the hedonic and eudaimonic outcomes of well-being happiness, crew have an important role to play in the co-creation of value through their interaction with guests and their use of the physical environment.

This paper aims to highlight the importance of combining the mechanics and humanics of the luxury superyacht experiencescape to co-create luxury value across both the dimensions of experience (education, entertainment, escapism and aesthetics) and the dimensions of well-being (body, mind, spirit and environment).

The paper presents a framework for the co-creation of luxury value in the context of luxury well-being on superyachts.