Luxury Travel Trends
Travel trends have changed to a great extent over the last few decades. The tourism industry has taken a long leap to offer more customized, authentic and enriching travel experience to the urbane nomads in order to fulfill their growing demands for an unparallel travel experience. If we consider the data of last few decades, we can clearly notice a rapid boom in the number of travelers
worldwide. Now, the entire travel industry has been divided into various segments like leisure tourism, spiritual tourism, wine tourism, cultural tourism, adventure tourism, eco tourism, rural tourism, yoga and ayurveda tourism, luxury tourism and the like. Over the last few years, a sudden boom has been noticed in the number of luxury tourists. The entire idea of luxury tourism encompasses a wide range of subjects; let us consider some of the most popular luxury tourism trends for the year 2013:
Sustainable, Responsible Tourism: It might appear you a little awkward, but a responsible and sustainable travel is the new buzz in luxury tourism. In the recent years, sustainability has progressed from a niche consideration to an industry-wide priority; whether it’s the hotel, airports or the airlines, the luxury travelers want them all to be as responsible, ethical and sustainable as possible. This growing consciousness about the environment also has given rise to eco-tourism in luxury travel industry. The concept of reuse, reduce and recycle has been adopted well by the hoteliers as well as the travelers worldwide. It is thus expected that over the coming years travel brands would integrate more exciting and inventive ways to cater to the taste of urbane nomads in a more responsible manner.
From Skyscrapers to Inner-city Villages: It’s again another new trend among luxury tourists to tap into regional culture, activities and community programs. Modern day travelers are more inclined to explore the village life from close quarters and to take a deep plunge into the lifestyle of the village populace. Different renowned hotel groups have made the path easy for the travelers by opening boutique hotels and resorts in distant corners of the world. These hotels are mostly themed into local style and present an authentic local experience to the travelers. Even the food varieties are also cataloged according to the local styles so that a complete village experience can be shared with the visitors.
Golf Holidays: Since time immemorial, golf is associated with opulence and there is no surprise that it now has become a popular luxury travel trend. Golfers from across the globe travel from one destination to another in order to gain an ultimate experience of golfing. Now a days, the tour operators are trying to merge golfing in their tour itinerary in a manner that it serves multiple purposes for the travelers. Elite class business tourists are the most common target group for the holidaymakers. Moreover, golfing also means visiting different golf courses and staying in different high-end hotels to gain an experience nonpareil.
Self Enlightenment with Yoga and Ayurveda: Southern Asia, specifically India has got considerable success in enamoring luxury tourists with its Yoga and Ayurveda offerings. Though Yoga and Ayurveda form a different genre of tourism, it’s been incorporated and harmonized with luxury tourism in order to cater to the group of tourists seeking to unveil the secrets of wellbeing. The Himalayas in the north and Kerala in southern part of India are considered globally as the two preferred most destinations among the leisure seekers. Along with the Ayurvedic treatments and Yoga practices, the itineraries also include consultation with the specialists and preparation of diet charts. Such holiday packages may range from one week to one month-long stays in different resorts of the country.
Fashion-forward Food: Like different other verticals, food has also been included in the luxury travel trend list. It is probably impossible to list up the food variations found across the globe, but the popularity chart can at least be prepared. Chinese, continental, oriental and Indian cuisines are most common to find in a restaurant menu, so what new should be incorporated in that? The new is the presentation and the idea of a tasty but healthy food. It is a craze world over to have food which has high health benefits. The list also includes vintage cocktails, which are rarely found and has a taste different from those of the common cocktails.
Off-the-beaten-path: Travel planners are now concentrating on off-the-beaten places as more and more luxury travelers favor such destinations to explore during their holidays. One of the reasons behind such choice might be to avoid crowd in popular tourist destinations. South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Botswana and Zambia stand out as most popular for adventure tourism in the luxury market. This growing demand from the part of luxury tourists is also creating a requirement for new destinations. However, suppliers can only meet the demand for new destinations at a higher price; the factors for a higher price include limited air service, higher operating cost for hoteliers, energy production, importation of items like food produce and wines, and the cost of training new recruits to the hospitality industry.
Today, the luxury travelers are clear about their preferences and have moved their focus on authenticity and experiential travel. Some of the themes high on their list of special interests include culinary varieties, art and culture, less explored regions, nature reserves and destinations that actively conserve the environment and promote ecotourism to safeguard endangered species of flora and fauna.
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