Mark Antipof and David Amsellem talk about The Luxurist

In January, HBX Group revealed an innovative platform that is set to revolutionise the contemporary luxury travel sector: The Luxurist.

The Luxurist is the world’s first comprehensive luxury travel ecosystem which leverages innovative travel technology to connect best-in-class travel advisors with extraordinary global hotel properties via a seamless interface designed exclusively for the luxury segment. 

As such it aims to establish a new reference point in the B2B premiere travel market, addressing a need for intelligent backend infrastructure and a robust planning ecosystem for luxury travel advisors.

At HBX Group’s MarketHub 2025 in Macao, Travel Daily Media’s Gary Marshall had the opportunity to gain further insights on the evolving luxury travel market with the people behind The Luxurist: its chief executive David Amsellem and HBX’s chief growth officer Mark Antipof.

An exciting partnership

Travel Daily Media (TDM)     What exactly is the tie-in between The Luxurist and HBX? 

Mark Antipof (MA)    It’s actually a venture that we are doing with our partner, David Amsellem, with us (HBX) as the majority shareholder.

TDM     We’re aware that, as of 2023, the global luxury travel business is worth US$239 million, and could be worth around US$391 billion by 2028. What’s your take on that?

MA     It’s actually in the trillions as we think about luxury, because it’s not just about the content, but it’s also about the experience that you deliver and how much a luxury traveler would opt to spend. 

So, the GDP of luxury is far greater, hence why we were very interested in the platform, but there’s also other uses for it.

David Amsellem (DA)     For years, hospitality has been seen on the accommodation angle only, but if we look at the behaviour of luxury travelers today, they start by booking experiences, then the stay, then the flight.

If you look at the expenses and at the GDP, precisely, you get to consider the experiences, the activities, and of course, instead of talking about $400 billion, we’re considering for 2030, a trillion.

That’s the addressable market that we have in mind. 

There are companies like Virtuoso who will be our partners, as they’ll be using our platform as a complement to what they have today. 

They are fantastic travel advisors: they are experts in luxury, and they know the market very well.

Also, they have direct contracts with all the luxury properties; but, on top of this, we come as experts of the experiential part, and you get to know that the luxurious relies on three pillars, which is a luxury listing, the luxury properties, exclusive privileges that we have negotiated, plus a dedicated concierge service available for the travel agent. And this part is about experiences.

MA     It’s about what we call the non-transactional components, meaning that on top of the usual, the traditional activities, city guides that you can book with any agent, you can also call us for a good recommendation for a nice restaurant, for booking a table, for getting access to sold-out tickets. 

That’s the role of the concierge behind the scene, behind the travel agent. So it’s adding considerable value to the travel counselor that’s selling the luxury travel experience.

DA     Our role is to elevate the travel advisors: we are here to really enable them, enhance their job, and give them more tools to make remarkable, memorable trips.

The right set of tools    

TDM     Could you give me an example to show what you mean exactly?

MA     First of all, luxury travel advisors don’t really need us to know which place they want to recommend.

But when they book this place, they want to make sure that the content is reliable. Meaning that this room, which has been booked, the room 34 that the client has seen on Instagram, is the room that they will book.

To do so, they can call us, and our concierge will do the job to guarantee that this room, which has been booked on the platform, is the room that will be booked for the client.

DA     That’s the type of added value that we can bring, thanks to our human concierge behind the platform. 

For example: if you’re coming in London during the Olympic Games, and you want to see the show, but of course you didn’t plan it before, you can still call the concierge and get access to that type of event. 

That’s because we’ll always have access to that type of sold-out event; and that’s how we, again, that’s how concretely we can enhance such a trip. 

Educating entrants into the luxury travel segment

TDM     I imagine that you spend a lot of time trying to source travel agents that are either in the luxury market now that want to bolt on or use your API, or trying to educate travel agents that maybe aspire to be in the luxury travel sector? 

MA     We do both. I mean, on one hand, we’re talking to luxury TAs who are frustrated not to have today this kind of platform in the market that doesn’t exist. 

We’ve made a whole benchmark globally, but we haven’t found one single platform. We have found lots of luxury listings, but no real integrated platform: so you ought to know that The Luxurist is a full itinerary planner.

DA     [Currently,] There is only one like this on the luxury segment. 

At the same time, we see more and more interest coming from traditional travel agents who want to enter this very profitable luxury segment. 

We’re here to educate them and to give them the tools to enter and to meet these very high-end demands.

TDM     Does it cover the cruise sector as well? 

DA     Not yet, but we plan to before the end of 2025. We’ll be also able to offer cruise on the platform.

TDM     Are there barriers to signing up with you? How does that process work and how long does it take and how much does it cost? 

DA     Probably that we could say that we have three entry barriers. 

The first one is the inventory: having access to a global luxury inventory is not something that you can do overnight. 

You need a signature for that, you need the contacts for that; you need a network, so you need HBX Legacy to do so. 

The second point is technology because, of course, having one single platform collecting and connecting to all these different suppliers with flights, accommodation, experiences, having one full itinerary on a one-stop hub is something which you can’t reproduce overnight.

And third, probably the most complicated to replicate of all, is the luxury know-how in terms of concierge service; and you won’t find this just anywhere.

You can find high-end customer services, but you cannot find the true expertise of a true dedicated team.

MA     You were asking about how difficult it would be for a travel agent to join or become a luxurious travel agent. 

It’s not: the platform is a SaaS product, so technically you could be enabled reasonably quickly.

Obviously we’d have to onboard you and understand who you are. 

If you’re an existing client today of HBX, for example, you could quite easily use those credentials that you have with the company to apply for The Luxurist and just sign up and fill a form and off you run. 

How long would it take? I think 15 minutes to sign somebody up and get going, basically.

A not-so-traditional model

TDM     What about cost structure? 

MA     Our model is a traditional model that we’ve had with HBX. 

As you know, we’re a B2B only, so our job is to make our partner’s job successful.

We share, if you like, the revenues through commission structure or a net margin that is shared with the travel agents so that they can either discount their clients or add prices or add their value on top. It doesn’t change too much. 

Obviously, the content is different because here you’re not talking about a standard room rate.

It’s luxury rates, so the product itself is a lot wealthier, let’s say; but you get what you pay for.