Why you need to know about the luxury travellers of tomorrow

A coastline tour of the Grenadines with family and friends on a giant catamaran. Ice vases filled with tulips in the middle of a surprise birthday escapade. A private jet commissioned for a quick jaunt across Europe. What was once a niche sector of the travel industry is booming. Luxury travel growth is outpacing the travel industry as a whole with newly prosperous travellers emerging from different regions around the world.

However what one person might find luxurious, another might consider just average. Not all travellers are alike. Travel providers who want to attract a more affluent customer base will need to learn how to satisfy each traveller’s appetite for luxury throughout their journey, and understand how to adapt their offerings based on individual preferences.

As such, it is paramount for the travel industry to understand the preferences and needs of this lucrative market segment.

This was the inspiration for our latest piece of research, Shaping the Future of Luxury Travel, which focuses on the behaviours of luxury travellers and looks at market trends. With the goal of helping travel players offer better end-to-end services to luxury travellers, this research analyses future hotspots, their expectations, and the strategies needed to serve new era luxury travellers.

Between 2015 and 2025, luxury travel trips are projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2%, almost a third faster than overall travel at 4.8%. For travel providers, this shows that this valuable market segment will continue to grow in importance over the next decade.

For example, our research found that between 2011 and 2025, Asia Pacific’s luxury travel market will see a faster overall growth than Europe’s, but will deaccelerate from 2015 to 2025, while Europe’s will continue to grow steadily.

This is just one of the interesting findings explored in the report that provides travel players with a little ‘food for thought’ on the luxury travel market. Findings like this can go a long way towards helping the travel industry offer something truly bespoke, relevant, and niche, while being able to adapt this offering when necessary as the traveller moves through their journey cycle. To help travel providers achieve the personalisation necessary to satisfy luxury travellers, this report also identifies six luxury traveller tribes: Always Luxury; Special Occasion; Bluxury; Cash-rich, time-poor; Strictly Opulent; and Independent Affluent.

Exploring the latest technologies and innovations for making the industry work better as a whole is key to achieving a new level of luxury that has never existed before. We hope the findings of this paper will inspire travel players to innovate their luxury offerings and formulate strategies for succeeding in this new era of luxury travel.

You can download a free copy of the Shaping the Future of Luxury Travel report here.