A Quest to Define Luxury

In a recent study commissioned by the Travel Industry Association, 27 million American leisure travelers indicated that they specifically seek culinary and wine-related activities while traveling. Late last year, panelists at the third annual Ritz-Carlton Luxury Meetings Forum identified the dining experience as the key component of luxury meetings and incentives. Does the culinary experience therefore define luxury? We went on a quest to discover what exactly defines luxury.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, luxury can be defined as something inessential but conducive to pleasure and comfort, something expensive or hard to obtain, or sumptuous living or surroundings. Consider well-known luxury brands such as Ritz-Carlton (it's our pleasure), Rolls Royce (design without compromise), or Hermès (abracadabra, sumptuous silk scarves) and how they conjure sensations that fit each of these three definitions. Taking a little time to really examine the words, pictures, and the overall imagery that a property, restaurant, venue, magazine company, or manufacturer uses in describing its products could give some clue to how each might define luxury.

In our quest we decided to visit the websites of a number of Caribbean resorts that would seek to define themselves as luxury, high-end, or five-star. The photographs on the homepages of two of these resorts already hinted at the luxury they both asserted to have in store; from the finishing of the furniture to the presentation of a gourmet meal.

With Sandy Bank Bay in St. Kitts scheduled to open in 2009, Auberge Resorts highlights the outdoor bath gardens, large soaking tubs, and ocean-view verandas that characterize the fifty guestrooms. Detailed pages for this new property are not yet developed, but as you read about this hotel company, made up of a collection of hotels, resorts and private clubs that include award-winning Esperanza in Cabo San Lucas, Auberge entices you as it boasts exceptional cuisine and spa experiences, as well as gracious yet unobtrusive service.

On the other hand, having opened last year the Hermitage Bay's website is fully dedicated to the property. On the amenities page, service is the very first amenity featured. In the description of the suites, use of words such as spacious, detached, and air-conditioned seem so blasé. Yet, once you get to the description of the bathrooms, with a tub positioned so that you can view the sea, and the fact that each suite has an LCD television as well as an iPod dock, well perhaps our definition of luxury seeps through once again.

Guess Where? Quiz
Did you receive a postcard or see the photo posted on our blog? Here's the answer:
Photo was taken of the island of Nevis from the southeast peninsula of St. Kitts.