NEW YORK -- Accor is betting big on Orient Express, leaning on the luxury brand's storied heritage to differentiate its hotel, train and yacht products.
Orient Express' revival has been years in the making. In 2017, Accor acquired a 50% stake in the brand from France's national rail company, SNCF; it took full ownership of Orient Express in 2022. Two years later, Accor forged a strategic partnership with luxury conglomerate LVMH to accelerate its development. (LVMH's Venice Simplon-Orient-Express train, operated by Belmond, remains a separate entity.)
Following the LVMH deal, the brand has picked up speed. Orient Express debuted its La Dolce Vita Orient Express train, with itineraries primarily through Italy, and the Orient Express La Minerva hotel in Rome last spring. The brand's first sailing yacht, the Orient Express Corinthian, launches this summer in the Mediterranean.
Speaking at a media roundtable in New York in early February, Orient Express CEO Gilda Perez-Alvarado said the group's current focus is on "ensuring that the public understands culturally how significant and consequential this brand is."
Key to that cultural positioning is a focus on historical elements, with the brand employing a full-time historian as part of those efforts.
"A requirement for an asset to join Orient Express is it needs to celebrate a time period, and not just any time period, but a time period that was significant either for travel or for the arts and culture," said Perez-Alvarado, citing the Orient Express La Minerva's celebration of its 17th-century palazzo origins and La Dolce Vita Orient Express' homage to Italy of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
The facade of the Orient Express La Minerva in Rome. Photo Credit: Alexandre Tabaste
A second hotel, the Orient Express Palazzo Dona Giovannelli in Venice, is under development. So is a second train that will feature restored Orient Express train carriages from the 1920s. Using Google Maps and imagery, the brand's historian, Arthur Mettetal, is credited with locating these carriages, found abandoned along the Poland-Belarus border.
A second sailing yacht, the Orient Express Olympian, is scheduled to debut in 2027.
Perez-Alvarado said Orient Express fans and history buffs are one of three key customer segments. The others are ultra-affluent travelers seeking something new and travelers in search of a bucket-list experience or milestone celebration.
The brand also hopes to differentiate itself through the ability for clients to reserve the entire yacht, hotel or train.
"All of them can be privatized because they're not big," said Perez-Alvarado.
"La Minerva is 93 rooms. La Dolce Vita, we can privatize it for a charter for anywhere between 60 to 80 guests. Then you have the Palazzo in Venice with 47 suites. You have the yachts each with 54 suites."
What a bathroom will look like on the Orient Express Corinthian yacht. Photo Credit: Orient Express
Orient Express faces stiff competition in ultraluxury cruising in particular, with major hospitality brands like Four Seasons, Aman and Ritz-Carlton making forays into the segment.
According to Perez-Alvarado, there's strength in numbers.
"We're all creating a new category," Perez-Alvarado said. "It was a big gamble for everybody, [so] it's good that there are four very powerful names behind the launch of this new type of product and experience."
Perhaps the brand's most significant differentiator, however, will be its ability to offer trips that span all three platforms. Perez-Alvarado said guests are already asking about itineraries combining stays in Rome, train journeys on La Dolce Vita and Mediterranean yacht cruises.
"It is not just a hospitality brand, it's a travel brand," she said.