Luxury oasis at the airports

We use more and more air transportation to move from one place to another. Due to intensified sky travel we spend logically more time at the airports. Whilst waiting for a flight or next connection we usually please ourselves with food or doing shopping. Mostly there are plenty of opportunities to do so. But if you are looking for sophisticated choices they limit to few or in the worst case to no one.

Traditionally, airports lounges guaranteed the intimacy and a sense of exclusivity. Nowadays, they are overcrowded and not at the highest standard. Could luxury boutiques take their place and become luxury oasis for the travellers?

True is that the brands began recognising importance of the airports for high-end spending. New boutiques or pop-up stores appear in the terminals. For example, LouisVuitton opened doors at Changi Airport amongst refurbished Central Piazza. Some of them are a real eye-catcher. Like Bulgari pop-up at Helsinki Airport that was awarded by DFNI as 2017 best jewellery & watches marketing campaign in thetravel retail.

Luxury boutiques at the airports offer ease access to brand's products. They convey also strategic visibility, even if only few customers will make step towards them. This concept seems to work perfectly as it does on the top luxury streets. But could they differentiate from each other because of their positioning?

As on the luxury streets, boutiques are art places where people seek for social encounters. At the airports they could embody sphere of tranquility and balance protected from the noisy surrounding. The travellers would find minutes of peace and esthetic experience in the heritage world of the brand.

To create such experiences luxury brands would need to think about the interior design of the boutiques enabling additional amenities for relaxation or serving refreshments and snacks. It is a challenging endeavor given the rigid space limitation available in the terminals.

Arrangement of customized visits could be one of the possible solutions to manage space availability and ensure proper attention directed from the store attendants towards the customers.

Opportunities for evolution of luxury boutiques are immense. Why not start thinking about them before the travellers depart?