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Abstract
The airport provides a unique environment for luxury. The transitory airport space is driven by notions of luxury, leisure, pleasure, and the exotic; they are places of possibility and desire. Since the first duty-free store was established in 1947 at Shannon airport in Ireland, international airports are now considered luxury shopping destinations in themselves. Today, luxury brand stores provide a unique offering, experience, and sensory engagement within the airport environment, which drives the desire for luxurious experiences. This paper demonstrates how the demand for luxury in the airport exists during the post-pandemic era. Despite a severe decline in 2020 due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the overall global luxury market has bounced back to almost pre-Covid-19 levels. Simultaneously, the interest in air travel continues to grow, which drives the desire for passengers to visit the luxury brands in the airport. This paper considers how, despite the setbacks of the Covid-19 pandemic, luxury brands maintain a stable identity in the airport. The physical store remains a crucial element of a luxury brand and contributes to the understanding of “what is luxury”; it maintains its status as the best place to experience the difference between luxury and non-luxury. Through an investigation of literature and case studies, this paper considers how luxury brands present themselves, how luxury brand identities are communicated, and how the experience of luxury is articulated, and perpetuated within the airport transitory environment.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 In December 2019, an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) was identified in Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province in China, and resulted in an on-going global coronavirus pandemic during 2020. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on the 30th January 2020, and a global pandemic on the 11th March 2020 (WHO Citation2020). Statement on the Second Meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee Regarding the Outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
2 In 2022, there were 963 million international tourist arrivals at airports, compared to 407 million during 2020 (Statistica Citation2023a). In 2022, the value of the airport personal luxury goods market worldwide was roughly €11 billion, which accounted for 3% of the overall market (Statistica Citation2023b).
3 The number of arrivals through airports dropped to 406 million in 2020 & an estimate by the International Airport Travel Association (International Airport Review Citation2020). Analysis of Coronavirus Impact on Aviation Industry. International Airport Review. London: International Airport Review. suggests that the 2020 global revenue loss for the passenger business was up to $113 billion (Statistica Citation2023a), when counties adopted ‘lock down’ policies and civilians were unable to travel.
4 Airport security, customs, passport control, baggage allowance.
5 Deregulation and privatization in the airline industry have, then, facilitated a transition from airports as largely government owned and operated public utilities towards firms, increasingly privately owned, delivering a range of services to privately operated airlines, terminal retailers, and passengers (Pinder and Roberts Citation2022).
6 In Veblen’s (Citation1899) discussion on conspicuous consumption and the purchasing of luxury goods, he considered that in order to display ones personal wealth and economic power, consumer goods are regarded as a marker for differentiation of economic status, and a means of showing the spread of mass consumption and the rise of a ‘leisure’ society (Veblen Citation1899; Diggins Citation1999). He coined the term conspicuous consumption to describe excessive consumption and the display of ostentacious consumer behaviour.
7 The 911 disaster triggered the financial meltdown of the US carriers, whose net losses in 2001 totalled $8 billion (Doganis Citation2006).
8 Revenge Spend is “the incremental increase in consumer spending (versus normal levels) after an unprecedented adverse economic event (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic). In simpler terms, revenge spending is the urge to spend money to make up for lost time” (CFI. Citation2023).
9 The key luxury firms were considered L’Oréal, Estee Lauder, LVMH, Kering and Richemont, who were at the forefront of the production and mass marketing of personal luxury goods.
10 The store has been built within the last 50 years, as described by the Institute of Historic Building Conservation Architectural buildings are buildings of architectural and historical interest, of more than 50 years old, within national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, and world heritage sites (Institute of Historic Building Conservation Citation2021).
11 The Mayfair luxury brand stores are located within old buildings, constructed from large grey stone, built within the Regency era. Mayfair buildings have associations with grandeur and wealth. The shops on Regent Street were the world’s first retail shopping street. John Nash was the architect working on the Regent Street shopping area in the 19th Century and took 14 years to complete. The project was backed by Prince Albert Regent, which Regent Street is derived, and completed in 1819 (Rowan Citation2017).
12 How a luxury space is identified by the objects within it, is called betweenness. This characterizes the spatial relations between objects. It defines how the organisation of goods within the airport luxury brand store constructs levels of luxury within the space (Urry Citation1995). Consuming Places, London, Routledge.. This is because, as Urry (Citation1995) argued, space is defined and identified by the objects within it (the products and people), subsequently, these patterns form, and create socially functioning spaces.
13 Angell et al. (Citation2018) refer to presentation technique, referring to a staged distance between consumers and exhibits, use of thematic displays and educational signage. In the museum, this can also be created with physical barriers, be it in the form of a physical distance or glass, between exhibits and visitors to minimize touching, contamination, and damage.
14 The Invariant Right is a theory created by Underhill (Citation2009), who placed cameras in retail stores to understand consumer behaviour once they walk into a store, and the results showed most customers veered to the right.
15 9/11 was the first-time airports globally were affected by a crisis. It entailed four coordinated terrorist attacks flew two aeroplanes into The World Trade Centre Twin Towers in New York, one into the Pentagon in Virginia, and another plane which was originally intended to fly towards Washington D.C., but passengers thwarted the hijackers and it eventually crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in 2,977 victim fatalities and over l25,000 injuries (Dunlap Citation2008). The Toll From 9/11 Grows Again, to 2,751. New York Times, July 10, 2008.. This caused U.S and global airports to close for 24 hours. This event triggered the financial meltdown of the US carriers, whose net losses in 2001 totalled $8 billion (Doganis Citation2006).
16 For example, Los Angeles Airport reported revenue of $3036 per square foot, compared to a Los Angeles mall retailer who takes around $325 per square foot.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Debbie Coney Pinder
Dr Debbie Coney Pinder is a Principal Teaching Fellow and the MA Luxury Brand Management Programme Leader at Winchester School of Art, the University of Southampton. Debbie has a deep-rooted interest in luxury: before entering into academia, Debbie held senior marketing positions for well-known global luxury brands. She now holds a doctorate in the realm of luxury brand identity in the airport, manages the luxury programme at the University of Southampton, and consults for luxury brands as a specialist in luxury brand identity and luxury business strategy. Debbie continues to demonstrate her passion for luxury through publications, and continually reconsiders “what is luxury” during her adventures on the mountain trails as a competitive ultra-marathon runner. [email protected]