The global luxury travel market is expected to generate $1,614 billion by growing at a CAGR of 7.9% during 2019-2026.
Luxury travel services cover the most desirable and premium experiences. With luxurious accommodations, convenient transport facilities, and authentic travel experience, now the service providers aim to provide outstanding services to their travelers.
What services do these luxury travel providers offer?
Name it, and they have the service. From private jet planes, spas, customized menus, private island rentals, to private yachts, almost every unique service is offered to the luxury travelers nowadays.
And to nobody’s surprise, luxury travelers are focusing on experimenting with destinations too. They are open to experience a stress-free vacation, explore cultures, foods, and other experiences. Everyone is looking forward to invaluable and unforgettable ones. They are looking for unique trips, which may or may not include and are not limited to cultural visits and adventure activities.
The key market segments
Keeping the diversity of the luxury travelers’ choices in mind right now, further, luxury travel key market segments can be divided among many categories.
For instance, you can divide them by the type of tour – customized & private vacation, adventure & safari, cruises/ship expedition, small group journey, celebration & special event, culinary travel & shopping; by age group – millennial, Gen X, baby boomers, silver hair; type of travel – absolute luxury, aspiring luxury, accessible luxury; by region – North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle-East, Africa.
Who is spending the most on luxury travel experience?
According to these segments, Allied Market Research goes on to say that baby boomers dominate the luxury travel market. It can be attributed to the fact that they not only have a relatively higher number of annual visits but also higher disposable income & savings. They also have fewer health constraints compared to the silver hair population.
Travel is surely considered to be the most leisure activity among every age bracket. Among baby boomers, Europe and the Caribbean are the popular travel destinations. They usually go for a second honeymoon, adventure, bucket list, and passion.
After baby boomers, Gen X spends the most on luxury travel. They generally prefer multi-generation trips. They travel with their grandparents, parents, and kids.
At the same time, the millennials’ luxury travel market is projected to grow with the fastest CAGR during the forecast period 2019-2026.
The Luxury Travel Guide Awards
With the popularity of luxury travel among all demographics and the competition among the service providers, it’s only wise to have a guide in place to guide the affluent traveler.
Antonio Cuellar, a luxury resort photographer who specializes in capturing the architecture and lifestyle of the world’s most luxurious hotels and resorts, also one of the judges of the Luxury Travel Guide in a LinkedIn article writes, “I have been photographing luxurious hotels around the world for well over a decade now and have a fascination with hospitality industry trends. A current trend that grows momentum each year is the increasingly sophisticated expectations of the high-end luxury traveler.”
About the rise in luxury boutique hotels, Antonio Cuellar adds, “A luxury boutique hotel will embrace its destination not only with its décor, furnishings, and cuisine but also with the experiences it is able to offer its guests. We have companies that are excelling in offering the wealthy an exclusive world all of their own such as the Cruise Lines and Airlines. But it is really interesting to watch the hotel industry and the hospitality industry trends that are emerging due to the spending habits of the world’s elite.”
On customer experience, even Anthony Melchiorri, host of Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible, also one of the esteemed judges of the Luxury Travel Guide Awards, had to say, “When owners say, ‘well (online reviews are) not important, people lie about them,’ I guarantee you, everybody, you’re all going out of business.”
At this point, it is the Luxury Travel Guide that becomes an exclusive resource for the affluent traveler. The Luxury Travel Guide aims to provide affluent travelers with travel and lifestyle news, reviews, and features to look over holiday destinations, entertainment, spas, technology, hotels, and much more.
They’re able to help the affluent traveler while considering the best of the best of what is available to today’s luxury traveler who enjoys luxury travel with meaningful experiences.
Luxury Travel Guide claims that its visitors get updated on a daily basis with online content and they can also enter their free competitions. They also have a Guides page where their visitors can find their flagship digital magazine publication. The publication claims to provide global advice for the affluent traveler.
What do the Luxury Travel Guide Awards recognize?
The Luxury Travel Guide Awards recognize and celebrate excellence across all sectors — accommodation, wedding and honeymoon specialists, travel and tour operators, charter providers, restaurants and bars, lifestyle, weddings, spa, food, and drink — of the affluent travel and tourism industry.
They present with Luxury Hotel Awards, Luxury Awards, and well-known Global Luxury Travel Awards, and Luxury Hotel Awards. Their team of experts includes but is not limited to:
Anthony Melchiorri, a hospitality expert and television personality who is the creator, co-executive producer, and host of the Travel Channel’s hotel turnaround show Hotel Impossible.
Shane Green, a Travel Channel host who utilizes more than 20 years of hospitality experience founded in the opening, managing, and turning-around global hotels and resorts.
Antonio Cuellar, an award-winning luxury hotel and architecture photographer and an avid travel connoisseur who has been to over 100 luxury hotels and resorts worldwide, has witnessed the ambiance and lifestyle of hotels in various places and doesn’t shy away from sharing his insights on the futuristic approach of luxury hotels or even the rise of the luxury boutique hotels in general.
They identify everything from the very best hotels to the airlines and even tour operators as they have scoured the globe and traveled extensively in order to be able to do so objectively.
How do they recognize the most deserving brands?
The nominations for Luxury Travel Guide Awards are open to everyone. Luxury providers can self-nominate and they can also be nominated by others. All four — companies, products, services, and individuals — are considered in their program. Nominations will lead to sending out emails to the nominees and they will get an opportunity to share photographs, PRs, samples, information on previous recognition, reviews, and customer testimonials so that they can prove they deserve the recognition.
It’s revolutionary how the demand for luxury travel services has raised the stakes. It will be exciting to see the boom in this industry in the near future.