What Travel Looks Like: Luxury Edition

For better or worse, the media landscape is driven by images more than words. Here, Victor Ozols reflects on the significance of imagery in the world of travel, and how it influences our perceptions of places we've never been.

Like most of you, I often daydream about traveling to exotic, interesting places. These daydreams are informed by my own memories and experiences as well as the barrage of travel images I see on TV, in magazines, and on websites such as this one. The images get so deeply ingrained in my head that they begin to define places I've never been, places that probably bear little resemblance to their photo depictions. Maybe, by listing some of the visuals that are so often used to show what travel looks like today, we can give them the perspective they deserve.

Take, for example, the luxury travel category. What does luxury travel look like? According to the glossy magazines, sleek brochures, and travel shows, several elements are essential for a place to be luxurious, foremost being the infinity pool. I don't know what it is, but there's something about an unbroken sight line that goes from pool water to ocean water to sky that screams luxury.

Martini glasses are another fixture in luxury travel imagery. The most sophisticated of all glassware, the martini glass defines wealth and opulence to so many people, and no ad for a five-star property should be without at least one. After all, rich people drink all their beverages out of martini glasses. Didn't you know that?

Likewise, every dinner plate must contain negative space to convey the unspeakable value of the herb-encrusted salmon fillet that's snuggled up against those three asparagus spears.

Tall, billowing curtains - the more diaphanous the better - whisper luxury with every ocean breeze, as do bath towels and washcloths that are rolled up into burrito shapes and stacked into a pyramid on a tray next to a Jacuzzi.

Spa services, of course, provide a treasure trove of luxury travel imagery. Just close your eyes and imagine the blue tile, cascading waterfalls, bubbly hydrotherapy baths, and outdoor treatment areas where well-heeled guests are oiled and massaged as the tropical sun reflects off the water like a million diamonds. And don't forget the rainfall shower heads and wicker basket full of fancy bath products and tiny bottles of name-brand lotions. That's how rich people bathe.

As with everything, of course, it's the people that really convey what a place is about, and the models in luxury travel imagery always have facial expressions that seem to say "Mmmm, this is wonderful and I deserve it." Of course, what they're really saying is "you deserve this." And they're right.

Related Stories:
· Take a Dip in Style in the Best Hotel Pools [Forbes]
· Luxury Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jade Mountain St. Lucia]

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