Research Shows Latest Travel Trends

Italy

The Travel Experts is a leading host-agency specializing in luxury travel. It is essentially a cooperative of more than 200 individual travel agents and smaller agencies operating under one umbrella, and it in turn is part of Virtuoso, a consortium of specialized luxury travel agencies who band together to get their customers preferential treatment, upgrades and special offers from the industry’s best suppliers, including Four Seasons, Crystal Cruises, Peninsula Hotels, Micato Safaris, Butterfield & Robinson bike tours, and many others.

‘The Travel Experts’ just completed a trend survey of its member agencies, each of whom specializes in catering to the needs of luxury travellers. .

Italy

The two biggest trends are 1) the return to travelers planning trips well in advance, while the past few years have seen much shorter lead times and last minute bookings, and 2) the emergence of South America as a hot destination.


According to the travel agents who are actually booking trips for travelers, these are the absolute most up-to-the-minute luxury travel trends-

• People with money are spending it. The trips may be shorter, but they are still traveling, and in style
• Multi-generational travel
• People booking further out
• Generational travel – grandparents taking their kids and grandkids, not just to Disney, but on Safari, for instance
• A move away from the Middle East and a surge to safer South America.
• Families with small children traveling to more exotic destinations
• Adventure travel

The hottest destinations right now are-

• Still Italy number one Followed by:
• The rest of Europe
• South America
• Lots of requests for Alaska 2012
• Hawaii
• South Africa
• Australia
• Cambodia and Vietnam
• Maldives and Thailand

It is good to see that Australia is in this list of preferred destinations.
The market changes in the last year-

• Business is up, more high-end, less mid-to-lower end
• Booking window has lengthened, people feel more confident in spending. Clients are finally beginning to book further in advance again, rather than waiting until the last moment
• The Middle East and Japan have changed where people are headed