2013 Trends on Attitudes of the Ultra Affluent: Where, How & Why They Spend
Over the next 10 years, 95,000 people are predicted to break the US$30m wealth barrier—a cumulative 50% rise, which will take the total number of ultra high net worth individuals across the globe to around 285,665.
Interview With Joe Poulin: CEO & Founder of Luxury Retreats
I had the chance to pick the brain of this young, ambitious CEO to find out exactly how this venture got started, what makes this company stand out among the competition, and where we can expect to see more Luxury Retreats villas putting down roots.
Monaco is the country most densely populated by ultra high net worth individuals. Fifty-five of these super-wealthy types can be found per 10,000 citizens in the principality. The information stems from a report provided by Wealth-X, which cites the...
Luxury electric carmaker Fisker Automotive has received four awards from separate publishers in the automotive industry this month. The recent citations of excellence came from Fast Company Magazine and Auto Bild Magazine and occurred on the same...
Global hotelier Marriott International, Inc., announced that it will double its portfolio in Europe, increasing it to 80,000 rooms from 40,000 by 2015. New development in Russia and the CIS countries is spurring this 100-percent initiative to grow....
Alexander McQueen, Mercedes-Benz & Burberry all look to digital tools to bring stores to life, as Saint Laurent Paris debuts its first retail concept under Hedi Slimane
At McQ’s new Dover Street store, a mirror allows customers to take a picture...
The Survey Of Wealth And Affluence has been in existence for seven years, and details the nuances of lifestyle and spending patterns of three groups of Americans. It is produced by American Express Publishing, and the Harrison Group, a YouGov...
Many industries around the world have suffered from the recession, but a recent study is suggesting that the global luxury goods market will see an increase in revenue to end out the year, with a boost from holiday spending. Bain & Company, a leading advisor to the global luxury goods industry, released its “Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study” projecting a 10% growth for 2012, bringing revenues up to around €212 billion (approx. US$276.5 billion). This particular market has seen a consistent rise, with 2012 being the third consecutive year that revenues have grown in double digits. More specifically, Asia-Pacific sales are estimated to grow by 18%; The Americas will see a 13% increase; and Europe will experience a 5% growth in revenue. By 2015, Bain projects that the luxury goods market will continue its steady growth and bring overall revenue between €240 billion (approx. US$313 billion) and €250 billion (approx. US$326 billion).
The hotel industry’s Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association (BLLA) named Joe McInerney its 2012 Person of the Year. The award will be presented at a ceremony during the association’s Leadership Symposium in Los Anglees, California, at the...
Independent artisans, cottage businesses and small-town U.S. entrepreneurs are having their day—actually, make it two days—in the spotlight October 17-18, 2012, with the inaugural Martha Stewart Presents American Made live event in Grand Central...
As with many ideas that have stood the test of time, the original idea of timeshare is a good one. It is the basis for mid level and high-end fractionals, for private residence clubs, and, arguably, for many equity and non-equity based destination...
The Ritz-Carlton name is widely associated with high standards and plush accommodations. In fact, the luxury hotel chain has more AAA Five Star Awards than any other hotel brand: a total of 28 properties out of 80 hold the prestigious recognition,...
Luxury brands are pushing forward with products and services for children, hoping to catch the attention of status conscious parents.
Alongside numerous services for ‘Very Important People’, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts now offer services to...
The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort is partnering with Norwegian wedding-gown designer Cecilie Melli to create a personalized wedding program for hotel guests. Ms. Melli has designed a selection of original wedding gowns, which will be available for rent...
When it comes to luxury, how are individual brands and conglomerates performing, and what does it mean for an industry threatened by economic crisis?
The Big Three
Back in August, we confirmed strong earnings reports from LVMH, PPR and...
Bill Gates has been seen as the archangel of billionaires over the years, donating $28 billion to date to deserving charities and organizations. But in between dropping serious cash on the necessities—flashy cars they don’t drive, houses they never live in and clothes they probably look ridiculous in—plenty of other billionaires around the world are throwing certain percentages of their earnings to those in need. Whether out of the kindness of their hearts, to relieve some billionaire guilt, or attempt to be named in the same breath with Bill Gates’ and his philanthropic efforts, the reason is not important; these elite are generous nonetheless.
According to Wealth-X’s new list of billionaire do-gooders, Tsai Wan Tsai, a banker from Taiwan, contributed 1.94% of his $4.7 billion net worth a year to natural disaster relief, education and community development among other charities. Not impressed? Huang Wenzai, CEO of a luxury property development company out of China, gives away 92.13% of his yearly income and his net worth is only $1 billion. So far, $32 million has gone to rural construction, public welfare and natural disaster. Kudos, gentlemen, keep up the good work.
The TV-watching legions know Nigel Barker best from America’s Next Top Model, and most might guess that his biggest career concern of 2012 was getting hired onto The Face (the new Naomi Campbell-fronted show airing on Oxygen) after being fired from...
I have some bad news: Mark Zuckerberg is only worth $9.4 billion now. And before you ask why that would ever be a bad thing, consider he lost just over $8 billion after making Facebook public in May. A moment of silence for his loss. Now that that’s behind us let’s talk about some more highlights from Forbes 400 richest Americans list. According to Forbes, 48 of the 400 are nerds from the tech industry (I added the nerd part), with some seeing big financial gains this year while others lost some major hard earned dough.
Number three on the Richie Rich list is self-made billionaire Larry Ellison who is up about the same amount Zuckerberg lost. His $8 billion gain brings his grand total to $41 billion. Not too shabby, but good ole Bill Gates will trump you any day. As top dog (#1 on the 400 list), his net worth is now at $66 billion, up $7 billion since last August. Even more impressive is the fact that he’s given away $28 billion to charity over the years and has taken his stake in Microsoft down to only one-fifth. Nice guys don’t always finish last.
The question is always being thrown around: “If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would buy?” The normal answers: a house for my parents; a private jet to travel the world; my favorite professional sports team. The world’s billionaires didn’t make their heaps of cash playing scratch offs, but they certainly know how to indulge in some interesting guilty pleasures — because if money can’t buy extravagant, unnecessary nonsense, what is it good for?
Mark Cuban is one of the more widely known billionaires, as he can often be seen sitting courtside watching his Dallas Mavericks. You may not know about one of his unusual, but lucrative investments in I Want to Draw a Cat for You. According to MSN, Cuban has a one-third stake in the feline-friendly website that sells customized stick figure cat sketches. I can’t make this stuff up.
Have you ever wanted to stand at the bow of the Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio and pretend you’re flying? No longer will this be mere cinematic magic, because Australian billionaire Clive Palmer is on his way to making it a reality (most likely minus Leo). He is having a replica of the famed vessel built down to the littlest detail and is said to be ready to dodge icebergs in 2016. "It is going to be designed so it won't sink," Palmer said. Good call, because that would really be a waste of money, and just downright ironically cruel.
If you can’t beat ‘em, buy’em. Never heard that phrase? You must not be a billionaire. Jim Pattison is however, and instead of trying to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records, he just bought it. This purchase only further confirmed his longtime affinity for the bizarre, as the 83 year old also owns the ever abnormal Ripley’s Believe It or Not franchise, which he acquired back in 1985. Believe it...or not.
After a smashing inaugural that impressed even Manhattan’s best-traveled socialites, the Travel & Leisure Global Bazaar is back for a second annual weekend, September 28-30, 2012. The Lexington Armory will be transformed into a colorful, musical,...
Though many in the States are suffering from the current economic crisis, not everyone around the world is feeling the same impact. A recent report stated that Asia continues to produce more and more millionaires, and will eventually result in the wealth of those high net worth persons with assets totaling $1 million or more to triple in by 2015.
Asia will add 1.66 million dollar-millionaires by 2015, taking the total number of wealthy to 2.82 million as the world's fastest-growing major economies of China and India continue to mint millionaires, a report from Julius Baer said on Wednesday. The Swiss wealth manager forecast that the wealth of high networth individuals (HNIs), those with $1 million or more in investable assets, would nearly triple to $15.8 trillion in the five years to 2015.
China alone would be home to nearly half of the millionaires in Asia with combined wealth of $8.8 trillion. The world's most populous nation had 502,000 million HNIs with investable assets totaling $2.6 trillion, the report said. India would more than double the number of HNIs to 403,000 by 2015, while Indonesia would see the highest growth rate in the number of wealthy, up by a quarter to 99,000, the first such report from Julius Baer said.
We generally hear about knockoffs in the form of counterfeit luxury goods or fast fashion versions of couture clothes but in every industry from restaurants to sports, success breeds imitation. That isn't necessarily a bad thing according to Kal...
If there ever has been two complimentary instincts in humans, they are to acquire, then to protect the acquisition. Safes have been in existence for as long as people had products they felt needed protection. And, as the...
When it comes to auctions, its not just post-war paintings that are setting new records. The luxury end of the property market is positively booming in London, New York, Hong Kong and Dubai.
Back in December 2011, an unfurnished duplex in...
Diverse, region-specific legislation has made it difficult for the wine industry to capitalise on the promise of e-Commerce, but could that be set to change?
“The wine industry is tremendously fragmented and insular,” suggests digital wine...
In Alain de Bouton's exceptional book, The Architecture Of Happiness, he argues that the idea of home relates to our own prized internal song. The concept of home, or residence, can be anywhere, but it must serve as a refuge...
As a hard working U.S. citizen, I look at the minimum wage in Australia (currently set at $15.96) with intrigue and a bit of envy. Gina Rinehart, the richest woman in the world, sees it as an obstacle in adding even more money to her already $18...
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