Moderated by Lucy Huxley, Editor-in-Chief of Travel Weekly, Piers Schmidt joined an engaging and insightful panel discussion during the Leaders of Luxury conference, which took place at the Andaz London Liverpool Street.

Leaders of Luxury is the flagship event of Aspire, the luxury travel club from Travel Weekly and brings together 250 owners, CEOs, COOs, MDs, director of sales and director of marketing level employees from the luxury travel industry for a day-long conference aiming to inspire and educate. The event is invitation-only with the Aspire editorial team handpicking the audience.

The conference focused on the key themes and topics of luxury travel, addressing opportunities and challenges the industry faces. During their well received session, Jo, Piers, Filip and Claire debated the definition of a ‘new luxury’ that is expected to emerge in a post pandemic world.

Piers identified the rise of ‘conscious immaterialism’ as travellers seek meaningful time and experiences over material things. Jo emphasised the central role of brand purpose in driving the success of Celebrity in coming through the crisis bigger and better. As Jo is fond of saying, “Celebrity’s comeback will be stronger than the setback!”