Wednesday 18 February saw members of Australia’s travel industry called together in the Blu Bar of Sydney’s Shangri-La Hotel for a media briefing for Virtuoso, hosted by none other than company CEO and travel industry guru, Matthew Upchurch.
LATTE was fortunate to attend the event, which launched the finding’s from Virtuoso’s first ever Australian Luxury Travel Survey. The results of this survey were formulated through responses from 5500 Australian luxury travellers, and the huge task was undertaken with help from Hamilton Island resort, qualia.
In his address to the media, Upchurch detailed the various findings. Some were to be expected, others came as quite a surprise. Upchurch stated, “The elements driving the luxury market are a feeling of connectivity, authenticity and a sense of place.” Increasingly, people are seeking a true experience of a place paired with bespoke encounters rather than the typical notion of luxury which alludes to unbridled excess and opulence.
It was also reported that around 66 per cent of survey respondents said they were taking more short breaks (two to four days in length), a huge increase from five years ago. Australians do not take short trips in lieu of long-haul travel either, with the nation recorded to have taken half the number of long-haul trips than the entire US population (whose population measures 300 million).
Virtuoso also reinforced the fact that the art of the travel advisor is very much not one that has been lost through the rise of the internet, and this is proven by the brand’s enduring success and increasing profits year on year.
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