California Replace Europe for Luxury Travel Next Year? Experts Weigh In
Virtuoso is a global membership-driven club for HTW (high net worth) travel advisors. 6,000 of them met for a 4-day Virtuoso “Virtual” Travel Week this past August to discuss, well, luxury travel and new trends shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Visit California, the states’ tourism promotional arm, made a big splash at the event bringing many of our Golden State’s best luxury destination options. Highlighting our many alluring luxury amenities – both manmade and natural, was a play to lure luxury travel to California next year – and it worked.
Our state was exposed to 6,000 travel advisors to the well-heeled, comprising of 70% with domestic advisors and 30% international, a reversal from past years, where international comprised the majority of luxury travel trade. Team California also conducted a webinar leading up to Travel Week show that informed 115 advisors learning about the latest in California’s culinary scene.
It’s important to note that GCLA is a member of VISIT CALIFORNIA! After the Virtuoso event, our state PR sent thank you’ s and a one-sheet resource guide with links to trade tools, social channels, and other Visit California resources including the Visit California website, the Respect California page, Road Trips Hub, and video assets to all 6,000 decision makers.
Here are the key insights from the event and meetings:
1. Luxury sentiment: The luxury segment appears to be more open and ready to travel. Advisors shared that roughly 50% of their clients have already traveled or are planning to do so in the coming months.
2. Key areas of interest shared by luxury travel advisors: Road trips, wine country, national parks, home and villa rentals.
3. West coast advisors expressed interest in learning more about California’s hidden gems, as they were already familiar with most destinations.
COVID-19 concerns: Broadly, there remains some uncertainty about what tourism options will be available, luxury and otherwise, and how many restrictions are in place in California.
Agents inquired about the possibility of private dining, hotel buy-outs and other exclusive and private luxury experiences.
Agents appreciated the team’s on-the-ground updates.
Takeaways:
1. Domestic advisors need updated information as many have not focused on domestic front for years.
2. California is well positioned as an alternate to Europe and other global destinations due to our amenity offerings and weather.
3. The luxury market is resilient as they have the means — both time and money — and experience with travel to feel relatively at east with the pandemic.
4. Many clients have unused credits from canceled spring/summer trips they are ready to utilize.
The governor has been cautious with respect to opening up California but with the vaccines already in distribution phase, it’s widely believed that 2021 will loosen up. The luxury market is mostly attracted to unique experiences so big attractions like Disneyland are not as important as, say, Camping in Yosemite.
Luxury travel requires a white-glove service mentality and a polished image. Throughout the holidays and into the early part of 2021 (when it is seasonally slow) I encourage you to look at your storefront – your website, in particular, and compare it to other luxury sites like the Four Seasons. The same discriminating tastes that prefer “French Laundry” dining (you get the joke) will be looking for high-line mobility options as the state of California continues to court the global luxury travel market as an option to Europe and other countries into 2021.
