Luxperience, Australia’s leading luxury travel business exchange, celebrated the start of its 2019 program on Monday with an opening-night celebration at the Australian National Maritime Museum. International and domestic delegates including buyers, exhibitors and media gathered under the Sydney skyline at Darling Harbour for the first night of inspiring, meaningful connections.
Guests were treated to three keynote speakers as part of Luxperience’s Thought Leaders Forum. Carolyn Childs, futurist, strategist and founder of mytravelresearch.com, shared her insights into the latest trends in the luxury travel industry. Social justice campaigner Ralph Kelly shared his journey to bring more attention to the power of kindness and how this can be implemented into everyday life. Author of The House, Helen Pitt, then gave a fascinating insight into Australia’s most iconic building, the Sydney Opera House.At the event, Luxperience announced the winners of its annual awards that recognise the industry’s best-in-class, showcasing leaders, change-makers and trendsetters. Award categories include Inspiring, recognising excellence in planning and development of products or services; Meaningful, recognising excellence in the pursuit of preservation; Connections, recognising marketing strategy and campaigns; and Destination, acknowledging the activities of regional state and national tourism offices in the luxury travel space.
The winners for 2019 were:
Inspiring Award – Pearls of Australia
Meaningful Award – Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley
Connections Award – Conrad Maldives Rangali Island
Destination Award – Visit Rwanda (Rwanda Development Board)
Guests then mixed and mingled over drinks and canapés by the water’s edge, before being treated to a performance of Nessun dorma by Opera Australia’s Simon Kim on the bow of HMAS Vampire.
Luxperience continues at Sydney’s International Convention Centre until Thursday 10 October.
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