Update: Eco-Luxury Resorts

Eco-Luxury Resorts offer consumers luxurious vacations in exotic places while being culturally and environmentally sensitive.

Trend Description:

We already reported about the growing importance of eco-friendly traveling (please read our blog entries Eco Luxury Resorts, Green Upgrades and Eco Tourism). As traveling has become a mass cultural phenomenon and consumers are becoming more aware about the importance to protect earth’s sustainability there are more and more companies out there offering alternative solutions. Most of them opt to offer easy ways for consumers to act environmentally friendly without having to change their behavior a lot. The new eco-ressorts offer their environmentalism as part of the luxury-deal.

Cases:

Revolution Places
Revolution Places is a $800 million, 650-acre luxury destination resort in Costa Rica, proposed by AOL co-founder Steve Case. The first ressort under the Revolution brand (subsidiaries include the consumer-oriented healthcare company Revolution Health and the Flexcar carsharing service) is supposed to open in 2010 and will be called Cacique. With Revolution Places Case seeks to redefine the luxury resort category by making environmental preservation and cultural authenticity priorities at every property it develops. Case also brings in other resort specialists and hospitality partners: One&Only and Miraval will have 120 guestrooms, each, and Miraval will also have 60 hotel villas. Additionally, there will be 300 for-sale residences, an 18-hole Tom Doak golf course, and the first Agassi-Graf Tennis and Fitness Center. 


Revolution Places will also invest in a series of local Costa Rican community initiatives, including
- the donation of 1 million trees to the government-chartered Foundation for the Balance between Conservation and Development.
- the donation of hydro-geological studies of the Panama aquifer and watershed.
- the donation of computer learning centers to the towns of Filadelfia, Hermosa, Panama and Sardinal
- a $1 million investment to encourage and support the development of local non-profit efforts.

Trend Impact:
Environmentalism is the new luxury. This trend development opens a huge variety of new business options. While targeting the high-end market, environmentally friendly projects can be planned at a new level. If done right, the Western World might finally be able to give back to so-called developing countries and help to preserve the beauty and nature of these remote places – at least resort-style.

Revolution

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