Travelers are opting to take longer and more experiential vacations; they are more interested in exotic opportunities; and properties have more availability over Christmas than New Year's this year.
MONTREAL – Luxury Retreats, a world-renowned luxury vacation rental provider, has the run-down on booking trends and hot spots for holiday travel this year, along with desirable destinations still available for rental during the peak festive period.
New trends this holiday travel season, according to Luxury Retreats, reveal the following: travelers are opting to take longer and more experiential vacations; they are more interested in exotic opportunities; and properties have more availability over Christmas than New Year’s this year.
According to vacation rental bookings made by Luxury Retreats’ discerning clientele, the most popular destinations for this holiday season are as follows:
1. Caribbean – Barbados and St. Martin
2. Hawaii – Big Island and Maui
3. Mexico – Riviera Maya and Cabo San Lucas
4. Thailand – Koh Samui and Phuket
5. Central America – Costa Rica and Belize
Luxury Retreats shares the following top three insights based on review of its YOY villa bookings to date for the festive period:
1. With the comfort of staying in a private villa, guests are choosing to take longer vacations during the peak holiday months. Average length of stay has increased by as much as 60% between the holiday travel season of 2012 and this year.
– For example, Florida vacationers stayed on average 7 nights in 2012, whereas this year the average stay is 12 nights. This trend has continued in other regions as well including Europe, Caribbean and other U.S. destinations.
2. Travelers are more interested in exotic travel opportunities. Three years ago Costa Rica was not on the radar for Luxury Retreats clients, but now it’s become one of the hottest villa rental requests.
3. Travelers this year are keen to travel for New Years Eve rather than for the Christmas holiday, which has historically not always been the case. Many properties are still available Dec. 20–27, and those who want to recreate a Christmas away from home can rely on their Luxury Retreats Concierge team to assist.
With over 2,500 luxury villas in more than 50 destinations worldwide, Luxury Retreats is still able to accommodate last-minute travel plans with a range of villa sizes across top destinations such as: Caribbean regions – Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, St. Barts, Dominican Republic, and Jamaica; Hawaii Islands – Big Island and Maui; Mexico – Punta Mita and Cabo San Lucas as well as Miami and Los Angeles in the U.S.
Luxury Retreats CEO and Founder Joe Poulin elaborates, “Since 1999, Luxury Retreats has been carefully building a global team of travel professionals who hand-pick and personally inspect every villa we offer to our clients, supported by our complimentary concierge services, to ensure that every experience booked through us is exactly as hoped.”
Photo caption: St. Martin, Caribbean.
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
