Luxury travel on the rise, FIT travel a promising opportunity: TLN survey

Travel Leaders Network (TLN) recently surveyed its North American travel agency owners and found that luxury travel is on the rise, independent (FIT) travel presents a promising opportunity for travel advisors and TLN members are seeing positive returns from their investments in lead generation and social media marketing.

“As a company with one of the largest networks of travel advisors in our membership, it’s essential that we regularly survey them to stay informed about their experiences,” said Roger E. Block, presidentof TLN. “The results of these surveys provide valuable insights into what advisors are focused on, what they're selling and their outlook for the near future.”

More advisors found that the fastest-growing ocean cruise segments are luxury and contemporary, with premium lagging behind.

Most members reported that they expected over 10 per cent growth in 2025 for luxury and contemporary, compared to between 5-10 per cent for premium.

River cruises are expected to grow as well, with 38 per cent surveyed looking forward to sales growth over 10 per cent in this sector.

On the land side, using 2024 as a baseline, TLN members plan to sell more FIT travel in the new year.

Nearly 80 per cent of respondents expect to sell over 5 per cent more in the FIT segment. Group travel shows mild growth with just 40 per cent of respondents forecasting over 5 per cent in sales growth.

All-inclusive resorts, where 50 per cent surveyed are forecasting between 5-10 per cent growth and 38 per cent are seeing less than 5 per cent growth, is an area of travel with softening sales.

Forty per cent of respondents listed social media as their number one most effective way of driving new sales.

TLN members reported that their number one change in business priority from 2024 to 2025 is to invest more in marketing and lead generation, including in TLN’s engagement programs and Agent Profiler.

Travel advisors seem to be embracing the potential of Artificial Intelligence, with all respondents indicating plans to incorporate AI in some way next year.

The primary applications they intend to focus on include marketing communications, customer service responses and crafting their profiles on Agent Profiler.

“It's interesting to note that the areas where our members wish to invest their resources align with the tools we've introduced and refined, such as Social Share Pro, Agent Profiler for lead generation and TobyAI,” said Block. “Travel Leaders Network is clearly on the right track in providing members with the support they need. As the survey reveals, while there are some challenges, travel advisors overall are optimistic about the opportunities ahead in 2025 and anticipate another successful year.”

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