Irvine Company has joined forces with four other major retail property owners for a marketing effort intended to keep its Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach a must-see destination on luxury travelers’ itineraries.
USA Luxury Shopping Consortium also includes mall owners GGP Inc. in Chicago; Macerich Co. in Santa Monica; Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. in New York; and OliverMcMillan in San Diego.
The marketing co-op is pooling its resources to promote 10 shopping centers to high-end tourists through about 15,000 travel agents in 44 countries who are members of the Fort Worth, Texas-based Virtuoso Ltd. network. The travel agents collectively generate about $21 billion in luxury leisure travel sales annually, according to Virtuoso.
“The common denominator for all of the USA Luxury Shopping Consortium centers is that they strive to not just sell merchandise but to offer a unique experience to luxury travelers when they visit, so they extend their time at Fashion Island and go home with a memory,” Easther Liu, chief marketing officer of Irvine Company Retail Properties, said via email.
“For instance, working with Virtuoso Travel Advisors gives us the opportunity to know in advance when a visitor will be arriving. We can assist with transportation to and from the center if they need it, or provide complimentary valet parking, VIP greeting, white glove service in participating retail stores, package delivery to hotels, signature dining experiences with wine tastings or chef meet-and-greets … any number of customized experiences. And of course visitors enjoy our complimentary personal shopping assistance, especially international travelers looking for specific brands and designer labels.”
Each of the 10 luxury shopping centers—a roster that includes Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, Santa Monica Place, and Scottsdale Fashion Square—will customize the perks they plan to offer, according to Angela Roditi, vice president of alliances at Virtuoso.
The consortium will invest in print and digital advertising aimed at Virtuoso travel advisers and their clients. Its representatives also plan to participate in training webinars for travel agents and meet with those attending Virtuoso Travel Week, an event held in August in Las Vegas.
“When the client calls, the adviser knows to tell them ‘Listen, when you’re in town, you have to visit Fashion Island, and this is why—they have all these wonderful boutiques, they have great stores like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s and Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and you’re going to get all sorts of privileges,” Roditi said. “If the adviser doesn’t know what he’s talking about, then we’ve wasted our time.”
Virtuoso first reached out to Fashion Island “following a suggestion that they would be a good fit with our network,” she said. The Virtuoso team worked with Fashion Island retail consultant Kathy Anderson of Anderson Retail Tourism Marketing in Scottsdale to develop “a larger program involving other luxury shopping centers.”
The consortium’s partnership with Virtuoso is for one year. The financial details were not disclosed.
Fashion Island has about 170 stores that generated an estimated $700 million in taxable sales for the 12-month period that ended June 30.
