Co-creating Luxury Customer Experiences in Tourism

This book provides insight into the luxury yacht (or superyacht) tourism market and industry. Superyacht tourism is a distinct form of tourism by virtue of the fact that luxury yacht consumers (guests) receive a bespoke vacation experience co-created with both the yachts’ crew and associated allied agencies. Elaborating on these co-created superyacht experiences, the book explores the inputs of both guests and stakeholders and is unique in three main ways. Firstly, it presents insight into the luxury value proposition all the way from yacht design through to ownership, staffing, charter management and consumption. Secondly, it presents an understanding of the luxury yacht market proposition through the unifying framework of customer experience. In doing so the book follows the shift in focus from the material and symbolic elements of luxury towards the experiential element. Finally, the book incorporates both academic and industry expert insights into the co-creation of luxury yacht experiences.

Russell Williams is a Senior Lecturer in Management at the University of Aberdeen, UK. He is an experienced academic, trainer and researcher. Russell has held posts a number of UK Universities including Hull, Abertay Dundee, Sunderland and De Montfort. Russell’s teaching interests range across Marketing, Business Strategy, Leadership, and Digital Business. He has published thirty journal articles across a range of discipline areas. Most recently he co-authored a Chapter for the Palgrave MacMillan book: Luxury Yachting: Perspectives on Tourism, Practice and Context (Palgrave 2022). Russell is a Senior Fellow of the Advance HE (Formerly the Higher Education Academy) and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute FCMI. In a previous life, Russell was involved in two Internet start-ups at the turn of the millennium. He has also served as a business mentor for start-ups.
Dr Tatiana Gladkikh BA MA PhD SFHEA MCIL is Lecturer in Management at the University of Aberdeen Business School. As an academic and consultant, she has worked the UK, Russia, Europe, the Middle East and South-East Asia. Her research is focused on cross-cultural leadership, cross-cultural issues in the global business environment, and luxury end of tourism. Her previous edited book Luxury Yachting: Perspectives on Tourism, Practice and Context was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022. Tatiana is an associate editor of The Journal of Management Development. She is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE (formerly The Higher Education Academy HEA) and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (MCIL). Dr Gladkikh is a Conference Committee member at the European Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance (ECMLG). Tatiana is a certified Life and Success Coach (JSCS).