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23 January, 2025

Limelight Arts Travel’s Nick Gordon: ‘What constitutes luxury depends on what one values’

By Grant Jones

Nick Gordon is director at Sydney-based Limelight Arts Travel, which offers a range of culturally-themed travel experiences both within Australia and abroad, especially to Italy. Limelight Arts Travel is a key supplier at the Travel Weekly Luxury Roadshow, taking place in Sydney on 17 March, Brisbane 18 March and Melbourne 19 March.

What are the fastest-growing destinations for art lovers globally?

Western Europe is perennially popular for heritage art, especially among traditional cultural tourists, and for high-profile contemporary events such as the Venice Biennale. South America is gaining more attention for its vibrant art scenes – particularly among millennials – and awareness of the region’s art and artists is also growing.

Closer to home, there is huge potential for growth in Southeast Asia – Jakarta, Manila and Bangkok have thriving contemporary art scenes, for example, and are developing institutions and infrastructure to support art tourism. Singapore has systematically developed its arts profile over the past decade, with initiatives like ArtSG, and East Asia remains a powerhouse. China and South Korea are still at the forefront of contemporary art-making, but Japan is doing well to raise awareness of regional events in places like Naoshima and the Seto Inland Sea.

And Limelight Arts Travel is looking at all of these destinations for our 2025 and 2026 tour programs.

How did you get into arts tourism?

Ha! It started off as a side hustle while I was doing my doctorate. Robert Veel, later to be one of my business partners at Limelight Arts Travel, rang out of the blue to ask if I would be interested to take a group of people around Italy for a tidy pile of cash. Difficult offer to refuse, no horsehead in the bed required.

I led tours between semesters while lecturing at university for around 10 years, before deciding that I’d rather be in travel full-time to develop new art-focused tours. Later we launched Limelight Arts Travel to take advantage of a more general generational shift in cultural tourism.

It’s very personally motivating: there are few better ways I can imagine to combine my love of history, travel and art. I love finding out new things and sharing them with as many people as possible.

What part does luxury play on your trips?

Not to get too philosophical about it, but what constitutes luxury depends on what one values. For some people, it’s as simple as having time to mow the lawn. For us, one of the key luxuries is time: having the time to look carefully at something beautiful close up or taking the time to understand a culture or destination in greater depth.

Curating time is at the centre of what we do – not rushing to see so much that you remember nothing, creating enough time within a program for your mind to get some rest (sensory pleasures like delicious food or sublime landscapes help!), enjoying enough time in each place so that you feel like you’ve come to know it. Once this part is worked out, providing services with comfort, the right feel and location to complement the experience is fairly straight forward.

Our clients are usually at a stage of life when they have time to dedicate to themselves again. Our tours appeal because they provide a way to exchange time for knowledge: our clients gain an increased understanding of a place, a culture, an art form thanks to a tour leader with deep knowledge and a love of communicating it. Our clients often say that our tours have increased their lifelong learning, or that they are a part of their personal journey. What people gain on a cultural tour is intangible, but it’s not ephemeral.

What do you see as the top luxury trend for 2025?

Redefining luxury and how it’s communicated. I think we need more novel ideas to make luxury sustainable in ways that enhance the experience. This is not just about making concessions here and there – too many cuts and concessions and you’ll end up trying to sell a three-wheeled Porsche – or greenwashing or offering something that has great optics but is ultimately ineffective.

Communication is key. If not handled well, then we end up with client’s eye-rolling at claims to be saving the planet by doing less washing. But if the communication is done well, it shows how a change adds to an overall experience. To give one example: we’ve known for a while that longer stays in fewer locations effectively reduces travel’s economic, cultural and environmental impacts. Seeing fewer places better is something that large sectors of the market have come to appreciate, so changes that enhance an experience are do-able. This kind of “residential-style” touring is an important component of what we do, and our tour leaders’ deep knowledge of places and cultures makes it work.

Part of the rethinking of luxury too is re-learning to speak of it as a privileged experience rather than a consumable commodity. Shifting attitudes towards a greater appreciation of what one can experience, though, will take more than a year!

What’s one thing you wish agents knew about Limelight?

How well we work as a team. Each person’s voice is heard by the others and we empower each other to act. This makes us good listeners, so we’d love to chat with you about your clients’ needs and interests. Oh, and we love to laugh, too!

Feature image: Venice Biennale 2024.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

Limelight Arts Travel Luxury Roadshow