The luxury of doing nothing: inferring luxury from idleness display in travel setting

ABSTRACT

Extant studies on luxury have focused on exploring motivations and service attributes behind the consumption of luxury travel brands. However, the underlying psychological mechanism of how customers develop a luxury perception of hospitality and tourism brands has received scant attention. By identifying scarcity of time as a significant factor behind luxury perception development, the current study argues that observers are more likely to perceive travel experiences as luxurious when they observe idleness rather than busyness. This perception is mediated by high social status inference on the part of the current user.

KEYWORDS:

• Branding
• busy
• experimental design
• idle
• luxury
• perception
• scarcity
• social media
• time
• travel experience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.