The luxury travel boom will power on for at least 12 months
Baby boomers are powering demand for luxury travel and river cruising in Europe is proving to be the most popular.
The luxury travel boom is predicted to continue for at least another 12 months, according to a report from prestige travel network Virtuoso, with nearly half of agencies predicting an increase in high net worth spending.
This comes as no surprise to Helloworld chief executive Andrew Burnes, who said older Australians were not as impacted by the cost-of-living pressures or interest rate rises because many of them had paid off their mortgages.
“The wealth of baby boomers is estimated at $3.6 trillion dollars and they are transferring it down to their children and grandchildren,” said Burnes, adding that baby boomers were also spending it on themselves. “They are in their 60s and 50s and a lot of it is being spent on high-end travel and extraordinary experiences.
“They fly in premium economy or business class, they want a more comfy seat towards the pointy end of the plane.
“They go on river cruises and they are not cheap experiences. It’s the premium cabins on cruise ships that sell out first. With accommodation people are booking a higher standard. There’s a massive intergenerational wealth transfer.”
American travel company Tauck, which next year will celebrate its 100th anniversary, is enjoying the uptick in luxury travel spend.
Steve Spivak, Tauck’s vice president of global sales and reservations, said Australians were the company’s second most important market by numbers and that was growing every year.
“For Australians the top three biggest product lines are river cruising, European land and North American land based tours,” said Spivak, in Australia to market Tauck’s popular tours and river cruises. “Australians want to travel well, they see travel as an investment, they spend more on travel.”
Australian passengers were increasingly asking for smaller group sizes and were happy to pay extra, he said. As such Tauck offers group sizes of 38, as well as lower groups of 24 and 15. The smaller sizes are more expensive.
Tauck’s Australian-based managing director, David Clark, said post-Covid there’d been pent up demand, with 30 per cent of sales to Aussies going to European river cruises, with Tauck adding two more custom-built river cruise ships for 2026.
He said once Australians had done Italy and France tours with Tauck they often book Switzerland, with an 11 day tour taking in Geneva, Bern and St Moritz staying in five-star hotels and costing around $20,790.
Disharmony in Milgrom family over Climate 200 backing
Sussan Group owner Naomi Milgrom has distanced herself from the investment company run by her three children that has poured money into Simon Homes a Court’s Climate 200 movement.
Crown owner Blackstone fancied to snap up Star
There’s talk that the New York-based private equity firm is once again having some serious conversations in the background about taking over Star Entertainment.