Luxury Market Study: The Vacation, Planning Habits of Luxury Travelers - Luxury Travel Advisor

Excerpt from Luxury Travel Advisor

Luxury travelers are planning significantly more vacations in the next 12 months, when compared to all other travelers, according to Steve Cohen, special consultant for the Olinger Group and managing partner for Stelico Consulting Group. At Luxury Travel Advisor’s ULTRA Summit last week at the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Manalapan, FL, Cohen presented “Luxury Market Study,” which surveyed over 1,500 U.S. travelers with an annual household income of at least $100,000. (For travelers to be considered a “luxury traveler,” they must have defined all of their trips as luxury vacations; the remainder are defined as “other travelers.”)

In addition to taking more trips in the next year (3.36 compared to 2.91), luxury travelers are also planning to spend more than other travelers ($11,007 over the next 12 months, compared to $8,748).

Do “Luxury Travelers” Use Advisors?

On average, luxury travelers took significantly more vacations that used the services of a travel advisor than did other travelers. On top of that, significantly more plan to use a travel advisor for their vacation(s) in the next two years.​ Over the past three years, 16 percent of luxury travelers used an advisor (just 6 percent of other travelers did) but over the next three years, 55 percent of luxury travelers will use a travel advisors (38 percent for other travelers).

The increases across the board here are a great sign for travel advisors as many showed their worth throughout the pandemic and appear to have helped solidify their role/importance in planning a vacation. “It's up to you to find them (the 55 percent) and convince them that it's you that's the person they should be working with,” said Cohen.

In addition, luxury travelers who are planning to use a travel advisor said they would use one for such services as booking a vacation package, choosing accommodations, booking a cruise, purchasing airline tickets and picking a destination at a higher rate than other travelers across all categories. Luxury travelers responded they feel travel advisors possessed a strong knowledge of destinations; take the hassle out of booking; offer an extra level of service if things go wrong; can develop complex itineraries that they can’t do on their own; and will find better prices for the total vacation, among others.

While most luxury travelers (93 percent) listed a hotel/resort among their preferred accommodations (compared to 96 percent for other travelers), they are more likely to use a bed and breakfast (23 percent vs. 15 percent), a timeshare (15 percent vs. 13 percent), a personal vacation home (12 percent vs. 9 percent) and an RV/camper (10 percent vs. 6 percent).

What Appeals to “Luxury Travelers?”

According to the study, the top 10 hotel brands in terms of “overall appeal” are The Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, JW Marriott, Grand Hyatt, Waldorf Astoria, The St. Regis, InterContinental, Fairmont, Conrad and Loews. When it came to preferred guestroom features, luxury travelers more than other travelers valued housekeeping, the ability to choose a room before arrival, a balcony, name brand toiletries and a digital key. Other top responses (with equal rates of preference) included proper shower temperature/water pressure, complimentary Wi-Fi, the room size/layout, availability of electrical outlets and a refrigerator.

When it comes to cruising, luxury travelers are more interested (49 percent are extremely interested and 28 percent are somewhat interested) than other travelers (29 percent and 30 percent, respectively). Overall, those who enjoy cruising tend to be passionate about it and their interest in cruising seems to have returned. Likely related to the percentage of luxury travelers who have kids at home, Disney Cruise Line (60 percent) had the largest appeal of all lines. The remainder of the top 10 are: Norwegian Cruise Lines, Princes Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Viking, Holland America Line, Seabourn, Silversea, Cunard and Windstar.

“There are great opportunities for luxury cruise lines to enhance their offerings to kids. Now, they're not going to reach Disney levels, but the more they can do for kids, the more they're going to get that younger luxury traveler that we're all talking about,” added Cohen. “If you're talking to someone who's 40 years old and has an eight- and a 10-year-old, and you're trying to sell them on something extremely high-end but they're thinking more about their kids, you got to give them something where kids have something to do. We've all traveled with kids where there's nothing for them to do and it's an awful experience. Don't put your clients into that position.”

Click here to read complete article at Luxury Travel Advisor.