A&K bets on Indonesia's new luxury class: purposeful, experiential, and digitally inspired

Abercrombie & Kent (A&K) is sharpening its focus on Indonesia as the country’s luxury travel segment matures rapidly, driven by a new generation of affluent travellers seeking depth, cultural connection, and meaning. For Michelle Mickan (pictured), VP of marketing for A&K and Crystal in Asia Pacific, the momentum is not only undeniable - it is reshaping how the global brand approaches personalisation and storytelling in the region.

Mickan, who has spent nearly 25 years in the industry, describes travel as “one of the most powerful vehicles of change”, noting its role in connection, understanding, and wealth distribution across local communities. That belief underpins her marketing approach across APAC, but Indonesia, she said, stands out as a market undergoing a profound shift in what luxury means.

“Over the past 12 months, we’ve opened our Indonesia office, allowing us to bring guests from around the world to experience A&K in Indonesia. It’s a new and exciting chapter, and we’re applying everything we’ve learned from our global office openings to Indonesia,” she told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

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Indonesia’s luxury travellers are seeking deeper meaning

A&K has seen growth from Indonesia in recent years, with travellers moving beyond traditional luxury touchpoints and gravitating toward highly curated, culturally immersive itineraries. Mickan observes that Indonesia’s affluent travellers increasingly want depth, embracing destinations such as Africa and South America - places that offer a blend of adventure, culture, and connection.

She framed this as a shift from luxury as indulgence to luxury as personal relevance. The new benchmark, she said, is hyper-personalisation. “It’s no longer catering for a nationality. It’s really catering for… an individual, of what’s important to them.”

In practice, this translates to itineraries anchored in the traveller’s passions - whether that is history, food, spirituality or art. One client with a deep love of art, for instance, received a fully customised itinerary featuring private access to non-public galleries and after-hours entry to major institutions.

These experiences signal a broader trend: Indonesians are willing to invest in one-of-a-kind moments that combine exclusivity with emotional connection. One of the company’s most significant regional moves was opening a dedicated A&K office in Indonesia in the past year - a signal of the brand’s commitment to growing inbound and outbound demand.

The setup is part of A&K’s global network of over 60 offices, designed to embed cultural fluency into both experience design and marketing language. While the Philippines is on the radar for future expansion, Indonesia represents a market already in its transformation phase, with clear demand patterns and increasingly sophisticated tastes.

Local presence also helps A&K navigate cultural sensitivity - an area Mickan says is non-negotiable. She noted, for example, that the brand removed elephant-riding imagery from its marketing years ago, ensuring its content reflects contemporary ethical expectations and local norms.

Sustainability is becoming a luxury expectation - not a virtue signal

In Indonesia, where sustainability awareness varies widely across travellers, A&K doesn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it calibrates its itineraries based on individual interest.

But sustainability is deeply embedded in the A&K ethos. Mickan emphasises that “travelling with A&K is a force for good” - a principle rooted in the company’s philanthropic arm, A&K Philanthropy (AKP), which works with communities worldwide across four pillars: education, enterprise, health, and environment.

Guests, including Indonesians, increasingly find these grassroots encounters to be trip highlights - whether witnessing a clean water project or engaging with community coordinators on the ground.

Such moments, Mickan said, are difficult to articulate visually yet powerful in impact. They embody the intangible layer of luxury emerging strongly among Indonesian travellers: connection, authenticity, and meaning.

“We employ a team of dedicated coordinators in regions throughout the world, and that also allows for a deeper, more meaningful cultural exchange. The guests get to meet our project coordinators and hear about the experiences of the project,” she emphasised.

According to its website, one of A&K’s Indonesian signature journeys is a two-week island-hopping itinerary priced at less than US$24,000. The programme spans Bali, Java, and Komodo National Park, anchored by a seven-night voyage aboard the luxury yacht Aqua Blu.

Highlights include encounters with Komodo dragons, the Borobudur temple complex, an early-morning walk through a coffee plantation, travelling by dokar (horse-drawn cart) through a rural village, and witnessing a priest-led blessing and water purification ceremony in a sacred Balinese community.

“A lot of it comes back to connection - a moment at a temple or an interaction with a local chef. Those are often what people take away from a trip. It may not be the iconic part of the itinerary, but that connection becomes the most important piece, and those are the stories people remember and tell,” Mickan said.

Digital discovery rises, but human storytelling still wins

A&K’s website also maps its Indonesia coverage across major cities such as Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Bali, and Lampung, as well as island destinations including Sumbawa, Komodo, and Alor. The platform features a curated list of Indonesian hotels and accommodations - from the Four Seasons to the Aqua Blu yacht - alongside a catalogue of immersive experiences travellers can expect across the archipelago.

Despite Indonesia being one of the world’s most mobile-first markets, A&K maintains a balance between digital inspiration and human connection.

“Digital discovery is the most fabulous place for inspiration,” Mickan said, pointing to A&K’s redesigned website and new global imagery shoots. But she stresses that no digital asset can replace the emotional resonance of a local guide sharing personal history, or a chance encounter with a community A&K supports.

This insight is shaping A&K’s marketing approach in Indonesia, where affluent travellers often begin their journey online - whether on Instagram or platform ecosystems - but seek something much deeper than what mainstream platforms advertise.

A&K’s web data shows that Indonesian users gravitate toward itineraries that blend “adventure by day and luxury by night”. Private cooking classes, artisan workshops, and cultural immersion activities remain among the most-saved experience types from Indonesian traffic.

While A&K has not yet activated large-scale partnerships with local content creators in Indonesia, Mickan confirmed the region is now reviewing this strategy - a move that could significantly amplify their cultural storytelling, especially for “under-the-radar” destinations that rely on narrative discovery.

For now, A&K leans heavily on its global sales, PR, and on-ground teams to surface hidden gems, supported by assets such as its new Souvenir magazine, which curates insider experiences and emerging itineraries.

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