Exotic locales becoming mainstream for luxury chains from Travel Weekly

Phew – just in time as Perfect Escapes is just about ready to roll out its international properties. we have been scouring the world finding only the best of the best in far away places like Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius to Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Currently, we have 800 in the United States but very soon we will be carrying 1400 more from all over the world. Visit Perfect Escapes over the next few weeks to see the new additions to our exclusive list.

See the rest of the article by Harvey Chipkin at Travel Weekly (free registration):

Exotic locales becoming mainstream for luxury chains from Travel Weekly

Leading Hotels of the World recently received an application for membership from a hotel in Ulan Bator in Outer Mongolia.

St. Regis is opening a property in Lhasa, Tibet.

Ritz-Carlton will open the first hotel in the developing beach resort of Sanya, China.

While luxury lodging has always been available in out-of-the-way places, it seems that the demand for “the next new place” is driving luxury in exotic places to unprecedented levels.

Welf Ebeling, COO for LHW, said that the group had 632 applications for membership in 2006 (about 40 were accepted) and that there was “absolutely a higher proportion from outside the usual places. That includes the Middle East, China, India and Eastern Europe.”

The St. Regis Resort, Lhasa, is scheduled to open in January 2010 with 169 rooms in a new building. The hotel will offer three restaurants, a health club and spa, an indoor pool and a business center. According to an announcement from Starwood Hotels, which operates the St. Regis brand, the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway between China and Tibet has spurred a “dramatic growth of tourism,” and Tibet expects a 28% increase in visitors this year.

Ritz-Carlton is launching a new brand, called Reserve, in hopes of attracting guests to smaller resorts and more far-flung locales. According to Vivian Deuschl, a Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman, Reserves will be in “places in the world where not everybody has been.” Among the first will be the 125-room Molasses Reef on the island of West Caicos in the Caribbean.

“I’m excited about some of the locations we’re going into,” said Deuschl. “They will be different, not just in location but in the way they look. The only constant will be the level of service.”

Deuschl pointed to Ritz-Carlton’s second property in Doha, Qatar, a place called Sharq Village and Spa, which is being built to resemble an old village, with two-story buildings set around courtyards.

Another property that will be different in style as well as location will be an all-villa resort in the emerging destination of Bintan, Indonesia.

“When it comes to travel, people are looking for the next great experience, the next great memory,” said Deuschl. “If that means sitting in a mud hut in the rain forest, that’s what they will do, and this all comes out of our customer research.”

Jacques-Olivier Chauvin, the CEO of Relais & Chateaux, said, “There is a luxury market today that wants to see what others have not yet seen, along with comfort, taste, charm and good cuisine. Why should these remote places only be accessible to backpackers?”

See the rest of the article by Harvey Chipkin at Travel Weekly (free registration):