www.luxepointindia.com and Glion Institute of Higher Education, London and Switzerland joined hands recently to organise the first luxury dialogue interaction to understand and discuss trends, career opportunities, growth and challenges in the luxury industry. It was held over high tea at the Shangrila Hotel, New Delhi and attended by eminent guests from the luxury industry.

Ms. Judy Hou

To mark the beginning of a new initiative, Ms. Judy Hou, CEO of Glion Institute of Higher Education, London and Switzerland, a passionate advocate of education with more than 20 years of hospitality and education experience addressed the forum about future of luxury.  While quoting from the Bain Worldwide Luxury Goods Report of 2014, she explained that “the global luxury market exceeded 1 Trillion US dollars in 2014, the personal luxury goods sector, which is the core of luxury, actually tripled in size in the past 20 years. Also, a growth rate of 4 to 6% per year is expected to continue steadily into 2017, creating more jobs and a higher demand for luxury goods.”

Ms. Hou also pointed out the implications of such trends for India. Interestingly, according to the last data collected in 2012, India had the fastest growing luxury market in the Asia Pacific region, even faster than China.

"By putting our heads together and sharing our knowledge of business, education and professional training, we can prepare for this customer-centric future. From Glion, I will be happy to share our knowledge of how to inject hospitality culture into the modern luxury business model, a strategy that I believe will be key to the future success of luxury companies in India and around the world", she said.

Glion Institute offers programs in the fields of hospitality, tourism, and events, sports and entertainment management. Glion will soon be introducing a specialization in luxury management. With campuses in Switzerland and the UK, Glion is ranked among the top three hospitality management schools in the world for an international career in hospitality.

The forum was attended by eminent personalities from the luxury industry which included haute couture designers, hoteliers, luxury brand strategist and consultants as wekk as luxury wedding planners. Among them were Ashok Goel, Kushali Kumar, Ning Khurana Mukta Kapoor, Swati Pandya Sood Hayley, Mandira Wirk, Rajesh Khanna (AVP), Tanya Lutna Viraj Chopra, Devyani Khosla, Nishi Singh, Anjori Kumar, Abhay Gupta.

Mandira Wirk and Devyani Khosla ; Ashok Goel and Nischint Singh 

Abhay Gupta, Luxury Connect Business School ; Khushali Kumar

Mukta Kapoor, Judy Hou, Arati Thapa, Ning Khurana and Viraj Chopra