How audience perceptions of luxury travel have evolved

How audience perceptions of luxury travel have evolved

  • Travel
Dahye Lee 
Alex Bryson 

3rd August 2023

 

Travel has gone through a momentous few years. From lockdowns and travel bans at the beginning of the pandemic, to ‘revenge travel’ this year, with most global tourist destinations swamped with record numbers of tourists, all the way to complex questions about the sustainability of travel on a heating planet. 

Luxury travel spending is continuously going up to 35% in 2023 compared to last year. Who’s fueling the luxury travel boom? How have the crises we experienced shifted luxury travelers’ priorities, concerns, and perceptions? We investigated this question in collaboration with the Pulsar power-users at Alliants, a company developing tech solutions for travel companies.  

The unbroken rise of both social and search interest in luxury travel since the start of 2020 has proved how resilient and potent demands for luxury travel are in the face of economic recession and high plane ticket prices.

What’s driving the trend? On the one hand, there is a need for a sensorial enrichment that had to be shelved during the pandemic. On the other, there appears to be a prevailing attitude, amongst those who can afford it, that the realities and strictures of the cost of living crisis can be defied by prioritizing luxury holidays or even a couple of luxury hours. 

This is reflected in wider conversational trends. When we split luxury travel trends into three dimensions - wellness, personalization and sustainability - we see that the growth in the former two outstrips even sustainability, which is otherwise at the center of the zeitgeist.

 

Personalization has long been a key element in luxury travel, but its definition is shifting towards unique, personalizable experiences rather than exclusivity. The uncertainty of recent years appears to have compelled travelers to set off on their ‘own’ trips as part of a wider journey towards fulfillment, whether that means booking one-person trips, or ticking off personal bucket lists. 

At the same time, the pandemic legacy is augmenting the move towards wellness, epitomized by the  self-care retreats that act as islands within an age of crisis.

Growing concerns around the planet also appear to accelerate social interest in sustainability associated with luxury travel, seeing an 8% increase in 2023 compared to 2019, which hints that sustainability isn’t antithetical to luxury travel - but, as previously mentioned, less key to consumers as we see in other sectors.

When we dive deeper into the conversation utilizing Pulsar TRAC, it is more clear-cut that the notion of luxury travel is becoming increasingly synonymous with finding greater meaning in one’s wider life, rather than high-end experience as a one-off.

Indeed, the most-talked-about luxury travel themes include ‘holistic’, ‘ethical’ and ‘gastronomic’, each of which reflects a different aspect of personal growth, either through new experiences or elevated decision-making.

There is also, counterintuitively, a rise in mentions of ‘affordability’. Clearly, there is a widely held assumption that travel can be luxurious, without necessarily breaking the banks.  

Who, then, is talking about luxury travel?

Millennials & Gen-Z leading the lux travel convo

While luxury travel tends to be associated with older, more affluent consumers, perception of luxury travel online is being shaped by younger audiences: communities mostly made up by Millennials (in coral), are key in driving conversations around experiences.

 

Gen-Z communities (in blue), meanwhile, influence the conversation by projecting their dreams and aspirations. It also fosters a kind of ‘misfit’ mentality, with individuals simultaneously feeling alienated by the concept of luxury, but also able to indulge in infrequent spurts of luxury with a focus on specific wish lists. 

When we then overlay different audiences onto different motivations, we can see millennial communities (Holiday Lovers & Travel Influencer Fans) talking more about wellness and gastronomy, two activities they are willing to spend money on as part of broader self-development.

Meanwhile, different Gen-Z groups exhibit a different attitude, more likely to chase ‘bucket list’ moments, or derive inspiration from TV shows such as the White Lotus and Emily in Paris. In a continuation of the ‘misfit’ mentality already mentioned, they appear to identify as neither luxury nor budget travelers, but as individuals who, from a middle, liminal space, can absorb elements of both. 

When it comes to top concerns in luxury travel, Planning, Getting there and Booking dominate over half of the conversation.

In part, that’s due to the complexity of planning as more people look to curate their own trips aligning with their own individualized likes, dislikes, and sense of self. But it’s also partly attributable to the democratization of luxury, as a greater range of people gain access to this type of travel, and so become first-time luxury travelers struggling to find trusted agencies or services that they’ve never used before. 

It’s in this way that a few community-oriented socials and travel review platforms assume a central role as advice-givers within the luxury travel conversation. 

Advice needed for a family traveling for the first time to Costa Rica
by u/jafnc in CostaRicaTravel

Reddit, for instance, constitutes collaborative intelligence, especially for first-time travelers while travel review sites still act as a kind of bible.

For luxury travelers it’s facilities & services, rather than price, that reoccurs as a common concern when it comes to planning travel. 

Amid the growing wellness trends in luxury hospitality, the conversational focus seems to shift towards ‘rest’, which fuels specific conversations around restorative facilities and services that help people to get better rest and improve their health and self-treatment during short breaks.

 

We also observe more and more people blurring the line between travel and living, with the nebulous idea of an ‘aesthetic’ serving as a reference point as to whether a hotel or chain is a good ‘fit’.

For the most part, however, we see heritage brands dominate discussion in this space, thanks to both accumulated reputations and persistent brand loyalty.

Heritage hotel chains are topping list of luxury travel brands

When we isolate industry leaders in the luxury travel conversation, the top hotel chain groups Marriott, Hyatt and Ritz Calton emerge as key players. Each can boast a longstanding reputation, which has contributed to becoming their go-to hotels among luxurians. These travelers often will make return visits, even experiencing the hotels in a number of different contexts, such as family vacations or business trips.

Hyatt Place Auburn Hills
by u/cumtitsmcgoo in hyatt

Luxury hotel brands by travel type

Similarly, when overlaying the top brands across different travel types, we see the top three brands Marriott, Hyatt and The Ritz-Carlton show broadly comparable distribution across family, business and romantic travel.

Digging deeper into the conversational data behind this brand convo unveils mixed emotions amongst travelers, some of whom have high hopes that brands fail to deliver upon.

What makes people choose luxury hotel brands?

This lens also reveals distinct themes amongst visitors, with Marriott, Hyatt and Ritz, frequently noted in regard to redeeming credit card points.

 

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This article was created using data from TRAC

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