Multi-Day Luxury Tours Bubble Set for China Boost
Skift Take
Travelers are hungry for high-end experiences, and there appears to be no sign of the luxury bubble bursting anytime soon, with China still expected to add weight to the post-pandemic revenge travel surge.
Luxury multi-day tour operators are surprised, and to a certain extent, overwhelmed by the continued wave of pent-up demand. Just this week, group travel for Chinese outbound travelers was approved for certain destinations from February 6.
Joss Kent, CEO of AndBeyond, said the luxury travel company, well-known for its personalized safari offerings, “can barely keep up."
Since last February, "bookings have been 30 to 35 percent above pre-pandemic 2019 levels. We've just had our best first week in January in the history of the company," Kent claimed.
"All of the growth we've seen in the luxury segment is without China. Australia's only six months old. Asia's also only just come online and the demand is surprising," he added. Chinese tourists took 150 million trips overseas in 2019, while spending $255 billion.
Although Chinese travelers are only a small portion of the overall percentage of AndBeyond’s business, Kent said the segment is expected to "grow quite fast.”
No Leveling Out for Luxury as YetBeth Sherer, Abercrombie & Kent (A&K) director of product development and operations, also expec
