Castle vacation: hottest option for luxury traveller

CHENNAI: Five star hotels are passe. The luxury traveller is now looking to live up their international holidays with a royal touch: they check in to castles or palaces. Designed to indulge in the traveller with old world royal charm and pamper him with modern facilities, the castle vacation, as it’s usually called, is a niche, but fast growing segment.
"We began receiving serious enquiries for such vacations around three years ago. There has been a 30% increase year-on-year since then, with conversions climbing steadily," says Karan Anand, head (relationships and supplier management), Cox and Kings. "It’s still a niche segment, but a significant one regardless."
Luxury tour operators describe the castle vacationer as a seasoned traveller, typically aged between 35 and 65 years.
"This traveller is usually a top corporate honcho or an entrepreneur-industrialist, who’s seen the world and is bored with the cliché options. The Indian traveller has evolved, and now seeks experiential holidays, a segment that will drive the Indian tourism industry," says Kashmira Commissariat, COO (outbound division), Kuoni India.
So guests can relax with a Swedish massage and soak in the Renaissance architecture at Dromoland Castle at Galway Ireland or indulge in gourmet cruises aboard Le Montreux at Beau-Rivage Palace, Switzerland. The price tag: a castle holiday to Dromoland starts from euro 1,620, or a little over Rs 1 lakh for five nights. Accommodation at Beau-Rivage Palace starts at euro 2,380, which is about Rs 1.5 lakh, for six nights. Other popular options include the Ashford Castle Hotel in Ireland, Parador de Granada in Spain and Castello Ripa d'Orcia in Tuscany, Italy.
Like hotel tariffs, castle tariffs also vary from castle to castle and place to place. "So the price difference between a luxury hotel and a castle is actually not very much. This makes the castle option much more attractive, as there is a richer experience and this becomes a talking point for the traveller once he gets back home," says a Thomas Cook spokesperson. "Besides, most castles are owned and managed by locals, who add a unique charm to the place."
However, the palace guest is still from the metros of the country, with tier I and II cities showing negligible traction in this segment, even though the luxury customer from these cities is as wealthy as his big city counterpart.
As of now, the castle segment is restricted to Europe. "If you draw up a list of top 10 aspirational destinations among Indians, Europe is still one, two and three. To experience royal treatment in their most aspirational destination is absolute luxury for Indians. So we don’t see people wanting to experience palaces anywhere else for sometime to come," says Anand. Honeymooners are also becoming an important segment for palace stays. "This may, however, be more popular among the summer-monsoon honeymooners, rather than the winter honeymooners," says Commissariat.