The Virtuoso platform believes that the luxury tourist is looking to travel to unfamiliar destinations

01-10-23

Post-pandemic, luxury travellers have geared their travel to seek out elements that are closer to nature and the communities they visit, and not only that: they are also looking to ensure that the spending they can contribute to a destination pays back beyond their stay, says Matthew Upchurch, CEO of luxury travel advisory platform Virtuoso.

"Many luxury travellers want to see how their spending helps the destinations they go to," he said in celebration of World Tourism Day. "The new luxury traveller wants to go to different places, to be with people. They want to be with the people, they have a very different attitude, more of an adventure but also to get to know the culture."

Virtuoso is a platform of specialists in luxury travel and experiences, which has 20,000 advisors in 55 countries and serves travellers in more than 130 countries, who generate a volume of transactions estimated at 30,000 million dollars, according to the company's own data, which considers the luxury traveller to be one who spends at least 500 dollars a day on his or her visit.

Luxury tourism was the first segment to rebound even during the first months of the pandemic, which raised hotel occupancies in certain destinations such as Cancun and Los Cabos in the case of Mexico, where the platform estimated last year that sales in the segment could be 47% higher in 2023 than in 2019.

The firm also estimates that stays are longer as a result of the rise of digital nomads, which has led remote workers to work in locations other than their place of residence, commonly in another country. This has also changed the way the luxury tourist is viewed.

Upchurch says that before the pandemic, the luxury tourist was seen as one half of the market, while the other half was the backpacker profile, which were seen as opposites, but have now begun to synergise.

"The pandemic was a big blow because people saw how important it was to travel for the connection with their families, for mental health; that's why I think tourism is so important," he explains.