kabarsula Luxury Escapes’ Andrew McEvoy reveals why in-store customers are spending more bandar SLOT INDONESIA

The value of a holiday booking can look very different when a customer sits down with a travel expert, according to Luxury Escapes chairman Andrew McEvoy.

Speaking to Travel Weekly at the opening of Luxury Escapes’ first Queensland boutique at Westfield Chermside, McEvoy said the company’s physical stores are encouraging travellers to spend more on the elements that turn a package into a complete holiday.

“When people come in, especially in an environment like this, they’re pretty relaxed, and they’re meeting a travel expert who can help them not just with the package they want to book… but everything that goes into it beyond that,” he said.

“We sell a lot more airfares, transfers and ground content like tours and experiences.”

Luxury Escapes’ investment in physical retail is part of a broader strategy to complement its digital foundations with more personalised customer experiences.

The company, which began as an online travel business, now operates three Australian boutiques, with locations at Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre, Bondi Junction in Sydney and its newest store at Chermside.

McEvoy said the concept was deliberately different from traditional travel retail, with the spaces also designed to host events for premium members and provide a platform for tourism boards, airlines, destinations and hotel groups to engage directly with customers.

“We do think the mix of online and personal connection actually really does matter in travel,” he said.

“When people take a holiday, they’re taking a risk, and they want to see the whites of someone’s eyes and be able to trust someone that what they’re booking is real.”

A place for people and technology

As artificial intelligence increasingly influences how travellers research, discover and book holidays, McEvoy said he sees physical retail as complementary to the technology rather than a competing proposition.

Luxury Escapes is already using AI across its operations, including customer enquiries, website development and coding, but he said different customers continued to have different preferences when it came to booking.

Around 60 per cent of customers book packages directly online, just over 30 per cent book via phone, while approximately five to six per cent prefer to visit a physical store.

“We’re big into AI, we want to be discoverable and easily searched, and that’s what we work on,” McEvoy said.

“But beyond that, the personal experience still does matter.”

He said the business was focused on making each channel work together seamlessly.

The role of loyalty

Another priority is building long-term relationships with customers through Société, the company’s loyalty program, which now has more than two million members.

The program offers benefits across its membership tiers, including complimentary upgrades, airport transfers and lounge passes, giving travellers more reasons to return to the platform.

McEvoy said the business had a database of approximately 18 million people who had either purchased from or considered purchasing through Luxury Escapes, creating a significant opportunity to deepen engagement.

Ultimately, he said, loyalty came down to delivering an experience that lived up to the promise of the booking.

“The feedback for our packages and our sort of flash-style stuff is often, ‘It’s too good to be true’. But then they have a trip and it’s affordable, it’s fantastic, they’re well looked after and have a great time,” he said.

“That’s the best way to create loyalty, and that’s why people keep coming back.”

Room to grow

McEvoy believes Luxury Escapes still has considerable room to expand, both internationally and across different travel categories.

Its membership base now extends into the US, UK, Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong, with international markets presenting an important opportunity for the business to scale its model.

We think there’s a lot of room to grow, not just here in Australia, but geographically.

McEvoy also identified cruising as an area where Luxury Escapes could build a stronger presence.

“We think there’s a lot of room to grow, not just here in Australia, but geographically,” he said.

Physical retail remains another part of that opportunity, although McEvoy said the company would take a considered approach to further openings.

While tight-lipped about where the next Luxury Escapes boutique would open, he said future locations would depend on finding the right venues and ensuring each store could deliver a strong customer experience while remaining profitable.

“We want to make sure that as we open new stores, we bed them down into great experiences for people before we consider the next one,” he said.