ASSOCIATIONS

New luxury leisure consortium launches Great Hotels Organisation fills industry niche
In response to the changing European leisure sales marketplace, Great Hotels Organisation (GHO; http://www.ghorg.com) is launching a new consortium similar to Virtuoso, America’s leading network of independent luxury travel agencies.
Great Hotels Luxury Network (GHLN; http://www.ghorg.com/ghln.html) will fill the niche that has been created by the increased fragmentation of an ever changing European marketplace.
Recent developments in the European leisure sales market have seen it become gradually more fragmented, along the lines already seen in the US. The change is occurring as an increased number of tour operators and travel agents specialise into niche areas in response to the dynamic packaging and online challenges to their traditional businesses. The result in the luxury sector is a larger and more geographically diverse number of smaller niche operators that struggle to obtain good rates and allocation from the best hotels.