Skift Take
With their extensive global contacts, luxury tour operators have an advantage over newer wellness upstarts. They've just got to make sure they are putting on the kind of vacations travelers want.
Luxury Travel News
The Skift New Luxury column is our weekly column focused on the business of selling luxury travel, the people and companies creating and selling experiences, emerging trends, and the changing consumer habits around the sector.
There’s a significant degree of crossover between the wellness and luxury ends of the travel market. After all, many of those concerned with keeping their bodies and minds in great shape have real money to spend.
So it’s no surprise to see high-end tour operators putting more of a wellness spin on their vacations. The question is: Can they get it right?
As Skift contributor Samantha Shankman puts it in her story: “Luxury tour operators need to become conscious of evolving demand before losing market share to the rapidly growing market of travel experiences designed by popular fitness and wellness brands.”
For feedback or news tips, reach out via email at [email protected] or tweet me @paddywhyte.
— Patrick Whyte, Europe Editor
5 Looks at Luxury
Luxury Tour Operators Expand Into Wellness to Meet New Demand: Luxury tour operators have incredible advantages over wellness-industry competitors in crafting dynamic, immersive, wellness-first travel experiences. However, they must adapt to this new market quickly to avoid stagnation in crafting luxury better suited to past generations.
Virtuoso Has a Trip-Planning Tool to Inspire Luxury Clients: We’ve seen trip-planning tools come and go, but Wanderlist might thrive because its users get additional assistance from real travel experts who charge fees. Until artificial intelligence improves substantially, this hybrid digital-and-human approach is the most promising.
Accor Taps SBE for New Luxury Lifestyle Brand: Like the other big hotel companies, Accor thinks it has gaps in its portfolio it needs to fill. Let’s see if guests feel the same way.
How Some Private Jet Operators Try to Cheat the Ultra-Rich: Vendors sometimes take advantage of ultra-rich travelers, thinking they won’t notice extra charges. If you’re in that tax bracket, do us a favor — check your credit card bills.
China’s Outbound Travelers May Be Spending Less on Luxury Goods: Fears of a Chinese slowdown have spooked luxury brands that look to outbound tourists from the world’s second-largest economy to fill their shops. We at Skift can worry with the best of them about global trends, but for now, this Chinese spending decline seems modest and manageable.
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Skift Europe Editor Patrick Whyte [[email protected]] curates the New Luxury newsletter. Skift emails the newsletter every Tuesday.
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Photo credit: The Amanbagh in Rajasthan, India. Tour operators are incorporating wellness ideas into more of their vacations. Aman