California Luxury Forum Goes SLO CAL Style

The fourth Visit California’s Luxury Forum was held October 23-26, 2022, in San Luis Obispo County. This was the first time the Luxury Forum was hosted in the Central Coast.

This was Visit California’s largest and most successful version of the program to date, bringing 40 of the world’s top luxury sellers together with 41 California suppliers. Forty-two percent of the luxury travel advisors were domestic U.S. based, while the remainder came from Australia, Brazil, India, China, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Argentina, the U.K. and UAE. Collectively, they represent an estimated $246 million in buyer spending power.

Produced in collaboration with Visit California’s curation partner Connections, Luxury Forum has become known for its unique, “un-tradeshow” format centered around shared experiences that showcase the host destination. Visit SLO CAL and their partners made a lasting impression, rolling out the red carpet for participants and showcasing the diverse potential of their destination for leisure travelers. Many suppliers and buyers alike were first time visitors to the region and departed as enthusiastic ambassadors for all things San Luis Obispo County.

California Luxury suppliers presented to an enthusiastic audience of U.S. and international luxury buyers.

Kicking the program off was a spectacular opening night welcome party on Garden Street in downtown SLO, where a portion of the street was closed to traffic to recreate a taste of the city’s famous weekly farmers’ market. The following morning, an informative ConnecTALKS presentation featured Mike Gallinari, a Senior Travel and Leisure Reports Analyst at Mintel, who shared valuable insights on the latest emerging trends and opportunities within the luxury travel sphere. Key takeaways included:

• High-end luxury will continue to grow: While inflation is creating a tough economic environment for the Genpop, high-end luxury travelers still feel financially secure enough to travel.
• Nature is key to wellness:  Wellness travel is sought after, particularly at destinations that offer relaxation in an outdoor setting.
• Sustainability has an ROI: Travelers are seeking more sustainable ways to travel, and most are willing to pay more in order to do so.
• Travel providers can take the lead: Though travelers want to be more sustainable, they’re not certain on the best ways to do so. Travel providers have an important role to play in education and can lead by example.

The remainder of the program was all about the experiences and pre-scheduled appointments. In total, 714 one-on-one meetings took place over quintessential SLO CAL activities such as cattle roping, vineyard tours, metal stamping, hat making and sound healing. Two other splashy evening events brought guests to the waterfront in Pismo Beach and to a majestic vineyard in the heart of Paso Robles wine country, where the grand finale dinner was set.

Over 714 one-on-one meetings, California partners presented their unique take on luxury travel to buyers from around the globe.

Networking during a wide range of Central Coast experiences gave buyers invaluable firsthand experience of Central Coast tourism.

In addition to Chuck Davison and his hardworking team at Visit SLO CAL, Visit California is grateful to the event’s enthusiastic sponsors, who contributed to the overwhelming success of this Luxury Forum: Hotel Cerro, Hotel San Luis Obispo, Verspera Resort on Pismo Beach, The Cliffs Hotel and Spa, Allegretto Vineyard Resort, Cass Winery, Pure Luxury and Tolosa Winery.

A social and networking event courtesy of Cass Winery in Paso Robles.

In the post-event survey, the participating luxury advisors were most influenced to attend by discovering a new destination in SLO CAL, as well as expanding their California network of suppliers. Senoirae Ventura stated, “The California Luxury Forum was the best industry networking event I have attended.” Erica Tu of TTI Travel agreed: “Connections brings us together with exceptional luxury suppliers and also creates outstanding experiences. The attention to detail for every aspect of this forum was excellent.”

Visit California’s suppliers from throughout the state also found the event to be productive between relationship building and seeding future luxury leisure travel business. “The California Luxury Forum will forever be one of the best curated and executed events in my hospitality career,” reflected Pamela Graves of the Fairmont Grand Del Mar. “I loved every minute of this wonderful opportunity to connect with great travel advisors and celebrate amazing experiences together.”

California-based Pure Luxury Transportation provided first-class transportation throughout the event.

Cynthia Ordyke of The Westin Anaheim Resort echoed that sentiment, saying, “This is the best conference to attend! It was my third [one] and I am always so impressed with the quality of clients attending and the memorable experiences that help us to make valuable connections.”

Twelve of the buyers participated in two post-event FAM tours. One group traveled up the Central Coast through Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties while the other went south to Santa Monica and Anaheim. Those immersive, whirlwind tours are already paying off for the host destinations, resorts and attractions. For example, Kristen Slizgi, The Luxury Travelist, said, “I already have two clients looking to book VIP Disneyland experiences and I am working with Rick Youngman from Disney from our FAM trip.”

Attendees experienced (and participated in!) fire dancing at Pismo Beach.

The three-day program and FAM tours are forecasted to generate $7.25 million in future spend in California via the buyers who attended. Many of the advisors have already booked business with their new hotel contacts throughout the state, from Napa, Big Sur and SLO down to Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and Laguna Nigel. The program also yielded earned media coverage in outlets such as Travel Weekly, Smart Meetings, Travel Daily News, Paso Robles Daily News and FTN News. And social media coverage generated more than 11K impressions through Instagram stories and another 32,325 impressions through Instagram posts.

The overwhelmingly positive industry buzz ensures California Luxury Forum will continue to be an anchor of Visit California’s luxury marketing platform looking to the future. The organization is looking forward to continuing to grow this event as it travels to new destinations throughout the state, so please stay tuned for an announcement of the 2023 edition. Meanwhile, a big thank you to our California suppliers for participating and to all of the event partners and FAM hosts!