Luxury tourism service provision - Lessons from the industry

This study explores service providers' perceptions of luxury tourism service provision and increases the understanding of luxury tourism services. The research was conducted in Finland, which does not have a strong luxury culture and does not represent a traditional luxury tourism destination. Rather, it is an unexplored and promising destination for tourists who seek unique and untraditional luxury experiences. To examine luxury, eleven narrative interviews were analyzed. The study suggests that Finnish luxury is a new form of luxury, and to understand the core of a luxury tourism offering service providers need to have had their own experiences of luxury, know the context they are operating in and what the customers' expectations of luxury are. Additionally, the level of privacy of the experience affects the service. The goal of service providers in the Finnish context is to offer the customer favorable prerequisites for experiencing a hedonic or eudaimonic well-being experience.