Luxury travel powerhouse Virtuoso is kicking off 2024 with strong results and forecasting trends, as the company held a media briefing Tuesday afternoon in Toronto to unveil how 2024 is expected to shape up in the luxury market.
Una O'Leary, Virtuoso Canada. (Photo Credit: Marsha Mowers)
Una O’Leary, General Manager of Virtuoso Canada was joined by Misty Belles, Vice President of Global Public Relations for Virtuoso who hosted a panel of the network’s top Owner/Managers consisting of: Thomas Panos, Omega Travel; Carly Renshaw, Renshaw Travel; Stephen Smith, Direct Travel and Rob Blowes, BST Vacation.
According to Belles, overall Canada Network Total Sales at Virtuoso were up 22% over 2022 to record highs, most of those sales being Cruise (48%) and Tours (32%). Of the cruise numbers, ocean is up 48%, river cruising 87% yacht is up 38% and expedition is up 42%
Travellers have also returned to a longer planning and booking window for travel.
Owner / Manager Panel Discussion (Photo Credit: Marsha Mowers)
“What's promising for Virtuoso is that the Canadian network advance booking sales are up 16%, and the global average is 19%” explained O’Leary. “But what is significant is Virtuoso Canada's future cruise bookings are at 32%, which is outpacing globally at 30%.
We are a country with cruisers.”
The post-pandemic splurge on bucket list vacations to far-away and exotic places continues and Virtuoso predicts 2024 travel trends: Dark Sky Tourism, Slow Safaris, and Expedition cruises to Antarctica and Galapagos. But one emerging destination all panellists agreed on was Japan – referred to as the “Italy of Asia,” by Belles. Japan is the number one reemerging destination for all Virtuoso offices, regardless where travellers were based.
It's also a destination that requires some advance booking – which is in trend with longer planning and booking windows.
Europe remains a top destination and 2024 will be busy year sports on the continent: The Europe football competition is being held in Germany from June 14 to July 14, followed by the Paris Olympics in France from July 26 to August 11. Germany travel for that period is up 36% over last while travel to France during the Olympics is up a whopping 452%.
“The majority of our summer departures are for individuals who have family or have places there that they're going to go back to what, but for the average sort of Canadian traveler, they are absolutely looking outside of the summer window, which is the ultimate way to experience Europe” said Thomas Panos, Omega Travel.
Weather usually plays a part in travelling to a destination, but perhaps even more so for 2024. Findings in its 2024 Luxe Report (survey of over 2,000 industry-leading travel advisors from more than 50 countries) suggest climate change played an important part in travel decisions; a fact echoed by Vancouver based panellist Panos.
“Everything's changed, because there used to be the chance of having (forest fire) smoke season, protected in the lake country, and burning will be sort of more towards August, and now smoke is happening June and July. So that is a massive impact as to how you plan your holidays.”
“Everybody's unique and different and have different priorities,” said Stephen Smith, Direct Travel. “And that's part of what we do as travel advisors is we will be your priorities and we find the right vacation for you.”
“I would say for travellers to again book early,” says Blowes. “Just as we've seen a lot of growth going on and special events of course are going to impact that as well, but clients need to not be scrambling last minute. Book with trusted suppliers. Trust your travel advisors to connect you with the right product.”
Virtuoso says they’ll continue to promote travel advisors in 2024, realizing that there is still some work to be done to raise that awareness.
“That’s why we’re part of Virtuoso,” Kershaw says. “They're promoting the idea of working with a Travel Advisor in Canada, in the US and around the world. Because there's so many people who don't know, and they don't understand the value of it.
We know the tips and tricks and what to do. It's not about being the cheapest, but it's the value that you get based on your priorities to do that. So we would love it if more people knew about the potential of a Travel Advisor.”
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