Luxury tourism doing well. - According to a survey by the Splendia online luxury hotel reservation service, reservations on its website by customers in Europe for the summer of 2012 rose by 13% between January and May this year compared with the same period last year, but the rise has been accompanied by shorter stays and hotels at a shorter distance from home. Splendia says the average spend by tourists on its website has risen by 6% this year compared with last year. There are two contradictory trends against the backdrop of the economic crisis - high-range tourism and low cost tourism. There is such demand for luxury travel that recent forecasts by Boston Consulting Group say that sales are expected to rise by 12% by value each year until 2014, higher than growth for other luxury products (cars, watches and the like), which is expected to be to the order of 7% over the same period. Splendia expects to increase its own turnover by 30% this year to €50 million. Luxury tourism must now make greater efforts to attract rich tourists from emerging economies, who will be the leading luxury tourists of the future. (IL/transl.fl)