Having lived in 10 countries and traveled to 70 more, adventure-seeker Luca Franco’s true passion lies in experiential travel, those that not only heighten guests’ environmental awareness but also, if they’re lucky, change their lives. He started Luxury Frontiers, a company dedicated to top-of-the-line, holistic tented and treetop suites, roughly seven years ago to help create a new space within hospitality that offers “clients low-impact, high-yield, and experiential lodging products and operational expertise,” he says. The idea stemmed from his former life in luxury resort project development, where he saw the need for a business that was sensitive to the natural environment but also delivered substantial value, for both collaborators and guests alike.
At present, he’s worked with, to name a few, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Ritz-Carlton, Bulgari Resorts, Six Senses, Auberge Resorts, and Hyatt to create unique, immersive experiences by designing full camps and add-on experiential suites to existing properties in this increasingly demanding market. Next up: Nayara Springs Tented Resort in Costa Rica, and another in Indonesia. He sees himself and Luxury Frontiers as an advocate for sustainable tourism and socially responsible best practices as applied to environmental design, operations, empowering local communities and businesses, and sharing regional cultures.
A rendering of the upcoming Nayara Springs Tented Resort in Costa Rica, comprising 12 tents with a plunge pool and outdoor living area.
It seems he is on to something: “With a projected compound annual growth rate of 46 percent between 2016 and 2020, according to Allied Market Research, adventure travel is no longer a niche market for thrillseekers, but rather a reflection of a large consumer shift occurring in the travel industry,” explains Franco, who himself is planning on running a marathon in the North Pole and trekking the Salkantay from Cusco to Machu Picchu. “Today’s consumers crave one-of-a-kind, extraordinary journeys—be it sleeping under the stars in a Bedouin tent in the middle of the desert or nesting high above the rainforest floor in an open-air treehouse. Travelers increasingly seek out experiences that fulfill higher psychological [and emotional] needs, such as personal growth, learning, and enrichment. This is the next new level.”
In fact, it’s a quote from Marcel Proust that Franco says sums up the essence of what he looks to craft: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but seeing with new eyes.”
