Luxury Show Founders Split - Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal

Luxury Show Founders Split - Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal

Sydney will host two “luxury and experiential” shows in September 2013, with the cofounders and owners of this year’s inaugural Luxperience event in Sydney each going their own way (BEN breaking news). Luxperience is 50% owned by former Travelcorp founder Helen Logas and Rosemarie Sama, who headed up AIME for some years. Overnight Logas announced that she was the new ceo of Luxperience, while Sama “is no longer with the company”. And Sama has launched her own event, dubbed Luxe Events +

Travel Experiences (LETE) which is scheduled for 02-04 Sep at Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal - the same dates and venue planned for Luxperience. It’s not clear where Luxperience will be held now, but according to Logas Virgin Australia has continued its major partner agreement and “dozens of exhibitors from around Asia Pacific and Australia have reconfirmed for 2013 and will be joined by product suppliers from additional destinations such as Europe, the Americas and Africa”.

Sama is pitching LETE as an evolution of Luxperience, saying “her event returns in 2013 with a new format and a new name”. She said feedback from this year showed huge demand, but that “a greater focus on experiential meetings and events was needed”.

Interestingly Sama resigned as a director of Luxperience Enterprises Pty Ltd on 01 Sep this year - before the show started - but according to ASIC records remains a 50% shareholder. Logas said Luxperience 2013 would include a Thought Leaders’ Forum dedicated to top end experiential travel, while Sama’s LETE will feature eight “fun and informative networking events”.