The newest member of the inVOYAGE team of in-market creators, CEO & founder of LC Bespoke Laura Cambiaghi, shares her thoughts on luxury travel, her new venture and key market trends.

Based in Paris, Laura brings her expertise on France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy to inVOYAGE through her business, LC Bespoke, which was founded last year and represents a small and growing collection of luxury hotels. Prior to that, she worked in senior sales and marketing roles for some prestigious five-star establishments in Paris, including the Hotel Lutetia Rive Gauche, the Hotel du Louvre – Hyatt and the Hotel Castille, Rue Cambon. As Regional Director of Sales, she also oversaw the development of sales, in Europe and Latin America, for the SET collection of luxury hotels.

What led you to setting up on your own?
I wanted to capitalise on my 20 years’ experience in the luxury travel and tourism working in different projects and exploring different facets of the luxury travel industry. I also wanted to create a unique concept where consulting and sales representation are united. This is an attractive offer for small hotels that cannot afford their own sales team and need a young, proactive and lean company to advise them on how develop their unique ideas and projects, set up a sales and marketing strategy, launch the hotel on the international markets and carry on their sales development.

What’s your brand promise?
LC Bespoke a young, lean and very proactive company led by experts in luxury travel and tourism. It is ready for action when needed and is able to deliver either strategic sales and marketing consulting and/or sales representation.

What kind of clients are you working with?
Luxury, lifestyle boutique hotels and historic mansions such as Londra Palace hotel, a member of Relais & Chateaux in Venice, two prestigious Brazilian hotels, Emiliano São Paolo and Emiliano Rio de Janeiro, and the Myconian Collection, Mykonos: nine five-star properties located in three must-see places of the island.

What trends are you seeing in the luxury end of the MICE market?
In terms of destinations, we definitely see a boom in Oman – it is attracting more and more high-end groups for incentives. In the summer, French clients prefer to organise incentives in the South of France and neighbouring countries (Spain, Portugal and Italy) less than two hours away. When it comes to long-haul destinations, USA, South Africa and Asia (Vietnam, Thailand and Sri Lanka) are still very popular.

What does luxury mean to you?
Luxury for me means unostentatious, sophisticated and elegant – being spoiled in a hotel with genuine care and spontaneity. The hotels I usually work with are owned and run by private owners that have been able to infuse their roots and philosophy to their places and people.

How do you expect the luxury travel market to evolve over the next couple of years?
For individual guests, travel is turning towards the discovery of adventure and sharing. Guests want to immerse themselves in local culture and have a truly enriching experience. For groups, it will be more or less the same, with a highlight on new destinations such as Cuba, Namibia, Myanmar.

Outside of Paris, which other destinations in France are attracting MICE business?
The South of France and more particularly Provence are still key destinations. The Bordeaux area also works well, with the whole vineyards experience. For small executive groups, the Atlantic coast is a good option, while destinations such as Biarritz, La Baule, Arcachon offer five-star hotels with sports and relaxing activities available within walking distance. Normandy is also a good value in terms of luxury hotels and services and only two hours from Paris.

By Susie Harwood