What’s the trickle-down effect of uncertainty in travel? Why are people choosing to take shorter trips in nature? What happens to luxe travel when everyone’s finances are squeezed? In this part of the 2023 Expert Outlook, we speak to three experts about how people are spending their leisure time.
Alex Cheatle is CEO of Ten Lifestyle Group, a leading global travel and lifestyle concierge company founded in 1998. The company has a total of 24 global offices, delivering lifestyle concierge services in more than 30 languages in a total of 145 countries. The group offers affluent customer loyalty programmes for access to the world’s best restaurants, hotels and events and travel and lifestyle management for high net worth people. The company also releases case studies and research on affluent consumer and behaviour trends. Being CEO for 23 years at Ten Lifestyle Group, Cheatle has a deep understanding of the luxury market and also how a luxury membership programme operates.
Dr. Milena S. Nikolova is a leading expert in applying insights about human behaviour to travel and sustainability. Her passion is in applying behaviour-smart tactics to enhance the positive impacts of tourism on people, companies, and places. Dr. Nikolova is a frequent speaker at global and regional tourism industry events on topics such as behavioural economics for tourism, reinventing travel, and understanding traveller behaviour. She is the author of the first book on applying behavioural sciences to strategic issues in tourism. Dr. Nikolova is also the founder of a boutique company focused on designing and delivering behaviour-smart innovations for the tourism sector.
Cassam Looch is Content Director at global travel platform Culture Trip. With a background in film and television, Looch specialises in analysing and documenting local travel stories on a global scale. Formerly editor of Yahoo! Movies, as well as holding roles at Metro and Hello! magazine, Looch joined Culture Trip in 2016. His series 'Beyond Hollywood', which explored global film culture, won the Muse Creative Award and won Gold at the prestigious Lovie Awards in 2019.
Riani Kenyon is a caffeinated Zillennial who is hopelessly addicted to The Sims 4 and binge-watches her latest anime obsession when she’s not busy bopping to early 2000’s K-pop. Beyond being a nerd, she has worked on initiatives for the UN Academic Impact and the UK Model WHO, and also explored politics while interning at the House of Commons.