New research shows that the luxury travel market continues to grow, with the world’s most affluent choosing to spend more on holiday experiences that offer them authenticity. ILTM’s research for 2006 provides a comprehensive overview of trends and spends in the luxury travel market.

In a survey of 400 travel suppliers who cater for the needs of the uber rich around the world, 70% agreed that their clients are looking for a more authenticity from their travel experiences, and a further 59% stated that holidays need to be more experience led and enriching than ever before.

The luxury travel market also seems to be glowing with health – both numbers of clients and their spending is well and truly on the up. Almost three quarters of respondents experienced double-digit growth in client numbers over the last 12 months, with 67% having similar levels of growth in client expenditure over the same period. Almost a third of those surveyed noted major increases in client spending of over 20%. This contrasts sharply with the growth in global travel across all sectors, currently standing at around 4.5% for the first four months of 2006, and which is also displaying a gradual slow down.1

Interestingly though, as the affluent traveller increasingly looks for something ‘real’ in their travel plans, they move further away from needing the security of familiar luxury brands. This year less than half of respondents agreed that their clients found reassurance in luxury brands – in last year’s research the figure agreeing was 65%. What’s more it seems that the presence of the latest technology is not as vital as it used to be, as 74% of those questioned felt that high tech facilities weren’t high up on their clientele’s list of priorities for a luxury holiday.

One of the other outcomes of the research is that the uber affluent are now travelling much more ‘en famille’, with 50% of respondents noticing this as a growing trend. Older, and therefore more financially secure parents, increased personal wealth, smaller, carefully planned families, a culture of ‘treating’ as well as sizeable monetary gifts from baby boomer grandparents all combine to create a new ‘family luxury’ trend.

New Marketing Manager for ILTM Tim Latimer commented, As the luxury travel market continues to go from strength to strength, ILTM provides an excellent opportunity for companies to showcase their product to the most high calibre buyers. By maintaining the quality of those buyers, ILTM can ensure value is delivered - both in terms of the return on investment for exhibitors, but also the quality and scope of networking opportunities for all attendees and industry information to be gathered from both the conference and the show itself.