On Location: Fallcations, “city-maxxing” & analog escapes - Virtuoso maps luxury travel’s next wave

Luxury travel isn’t tapping the brakes in 2026. If anything, it’s gaining speed – and even spilling beyond the traditional summer calendar.

Virtuoso’s latest travel trends update paints a picture of a luxury market that continues to expand, with travellers spending more, booking further ahead and increasingly looking beyond conventional vacations in favour of longer, more complex and highly personalized experiences.

Presenting the findings on Monday (Aug. 10) during Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas, Misty Belles, vice president of global public relations at Virtuoso, said the luxury travel network is projected to close 2026 nearly 21 per cent ahead of last year.

As PAX previously reported, the growth is being seen across Virtuoso’s nine global regions (Virtuoso agency sales in Canada, for one, are up 13.4 per cent year over year), while positive momentum is also being recorded across travel sectors.

READ MORE: On Location: Virtuoso Travel Week – Canada comes in hot, “looksmaxxing” & the AI dance

Hotels are leading growth by partner category, up 25 per cent, followed by cruise at 22 per cent, on-site destination management companies at 18 per cent and tour operators at 11 per cent.

And it isn’t simply rising prices driving the numbers.

Bookings themselves are climbing, Belles noted, alongside hotel rates that have reached levels dramatically higher than before the pandemic.

“If you feel like you are paying double what you were in 2019 to stay at a nice hotel, you’re not wrong. That is exactly what’s happening,” Belles told journalists at a press conference that was held at the ARIA Resort & Casino.

Bookings at hotels charging $1,500 or more per night have increased 37 per cent, more than twice the growth rate of lower-priced properties, Virtuoso says.

Luxury international hotels in Virtuoso's data now average $1,653 per night, compared with $985 in 2019. Luxury U.S. properties average $1,445, up from $790 six years ago.

But some of Virtuoso’s most revealing data isn’t about how much travellers are spending. It’s about when they’re spending it.

Fall is coming for summer

One of the clearest shifts is the continued rise of fall travel, particularly in Europe.

What Virtuoso previously identified as “coolcations” – travellers seeking destinations with milder temperatures – has evolved into something broader: luxury travellers are actively changing the seasonality of their trips.

September, in particular, is booming. Virtuoso’s September bookings are up 55 per cent, while sales are up 77 per cent, Belles said.

November has also emerged as a surprise performer, with bookings and sales both up 70 per cent.

“One of the clearest signals we’re seeing [is] that shoulder season is now peak season,” Belles said, warning that travellers hoping to score traditional September bargains may be disappointed.

“If you’re looking to get a deal in September, that’s probably not going to happen." 

Europe is at the centre of the movement, with the gap between August and September continuing to narrow.

Virtuoso’s top fall travel destinations include Paris, the Amalfi Coast, the French Riviera, Tuscany, New York and London.

Meanwhile, the top five countries for fall travel are the United States, Italy, France, Mexico and Japan, the consortium says.

The trends are further broken down by country. For Canadian luxury travellers, French Polynesia, Italy, the United States, France and St. Barts rank as the top countries for fall travel, while the South Pacific, Lake Como, St. Barts, Paris and Rome lead the list of most sought-after destinations, according to Virtuoso.

The consortium even sees a point approaching where September could overtake August as the preferred month for European travel.

In 2023, September volumes were equivalent to 79 per cent of August bookings. By 2025, that figure had climbed to 92 per cent, with September growing nearly three times faster than August over that period.

Bookings to Europe this fall are up 49 per cent despite hotel rates rising more than seven per cent, pushing overall sales 64 per cent higher.

Some destinations are seeing particularly dramatic increases in rates. The French Riviera is up 179 per cent, Puglia has risen 78 per cent and the Greek Isles are up more than 130 per cent.

The shift isn’t coming at the expense of the holidays, either. Virtuoso says festive travel – measured from mid-December through the first week of January – remains healthy.

Some of Virtuoso’s top “festive travel” destinations include Hawaii’s Big Island, Los Cabos, Maui, St. Barts and St. John’s in Antigua.

For the Canadian market, Mexico remains the top country for luxury festive travel, with Los Cabos remains the top destination.

Booking bigger – and earlier

Luxury travellers are also planning considerably further ahead.

Virtuoso says forward bookings one to two years out are approximately 50 per cent higher than at the same point last year.

The trend extends into some seriously high-ticket territory.

Bookings valued at $50,000 or more are up 47 per cent, while cruise bookings at that level are up 49 per cent. Travellers spending $100,000 or more on trips are also booking well in advance.

Those elaborate trips naturally require more planning, Belles said, particularly when travellers are seeking specific suites, penthouses, villas and other scarce accommodations.

City-maxxing takes off

Cities are also firmly back in fashion.

After several years in which travellers gravitated toward more remote escapes, Virtuoso is seeing renewed enthusiasm for urban travel – only now, one city often isn’t enough.

Enter “city-maxxing.” Travellers are increasingly combining multiple cities into one itinerary, while “destination-maxing” is seeing multiple countries packaged into the same journey, Belles said.

Roughly half of these multi-city journeys cross an international border.

France and Italy are the most common pairing, followed by France and the U.K., and Italy and Switzerland.

Italy appears in two out of every five multi-city itineraries, with routes linking cities such as Florence, Rome and Venice proving particularly popular.

Private aviation is helping connect the dots, with millennials leading Virtuoso’s private-jet usage trend, pacing six per cent higher than the average.

The shift is being fuelled partly by the growing population of ultra-high-net-worth travellers, who have both the means and desire to build increasingly ambitious itineraries.

Longer stays are also elevating the role of branded residences and private villas, which can serve as a home base for more expansive trips.

The wealth behind that demand keeps expanding as well: according to Knight Frank, 89 people cross the ultra-high-net-worth threshold every day, and the global population worth $30 million or more has reached 713,626, up 29 percent since 2021.

The hotel becomes the destination

Where travellers stay is changing, too.

Luxury hotels are increasingly becoming experiences unto themselves rather than simply places to sleep between sightseeing excursions.

Location and proximity to attractions remain important considerations, but Virtuoso advisors are reporting that clients are increasingly willing to spend more for privacy and exclusivity.

That desire is contributing to the rise of the ultra-exclusive “hotel within a hotel,” as well as private clubs connected to luxury hotels.

Think the “Club Floor” at the Four Seasons Maui, Fairmont Mayakoba’s Heritage Place or Impression Moxché by Secrets in the Playa del Carmen region.

The distinction is particularly pronounced among ultra-high-net-worth travellers, who are beginning to pull away from the broader high-net-worth market.

A nice hotel, for some, is no longer exclusive enough.

Bookings at properties with average daily rates exceeding $1,500 per night are growing at a rate 37 per cent above Virtuoso’s regular average, Belles said.

At the same time, 54 per cent of luxury travellers are prioritizing their spending on experiences and tours rather than hotel upgrades, enhanced flights or even fine dining – another indication that access and experience are becoming increasingly important currencies in luxury travel.

Wellness grows up

Wellness travel, meanwhile, has moved well beyond massages and sleep retreats.

Virtuoso says hotels categorized within the wellness segment are outperforming its wider hotel portfolio, with bookings up 28 per cent, sales climbing 44 per cent and average daily rates increasing 23 per cent.

Longevity is emerging as the next major evolution.

Virtuoso is seeing three distinct types of luxury wellness travellers: the performance optimizer, who approaches wellness through data, measurement and improvement; the restoration seeker looking for nature, stillness and digital detoxes; and the meaning seeker interested in mindfulness and retreats tied to major life transitions.

Travellers are also expressing greater interest in reconnecting with nature and regenerative travel – the idea of leaving destinations better than they found them – while remaining reluctant to sacrifice comfort in the process.

Analog escapes rise in the age of AI

Perhaps one of the more interesting contradictions in Virtuoso’s trends report is unfolding around technology.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in travel planning, some travellers are deliberately seeking experiences that take them in the opposite direction.

Virtuoso calls them analog escapes – trips and activities centred around tactile, real-world experiences and time away from screens.

At the same time, AI adoption within the travel trade itself is accelerating. Virtuoso says 74 per cent of its member advisors and 70 per cent of its preferred partners are already using AI in some capacity.

That compares with an industry adoption rate of 59 per cent reported by Phocuswright.

But Virtuoso says the technology's reliance on similar sources can lead to repetitive recommendations and itineraries, potentially funnelling travellers toward the same destinations and contributing to overcrowding.

That has created something of an “AI paradox”: as technology makes travel planning easier, personalization and firsthand human expertise become more valuable.

Three-quarters of Virtuoso clients identify their advisor's accommodation and destination expertise as a key benefit, while three in five point to their ability to curate personalized experiences.

And the appetite for professional advice extends beyond existing clients, with 79 per cent of luxury travellers saying they are open to using a travel advisor for future trips.

Meanwhile, half of Virtuoso advisors say clients are actively looking to avoid overtouristed destinations.

Where demand is building

Across the findings, one theme rises above the rest: affluent travellers continue to prioritize travel, even as the way they travel evolves.

Virtuoso's July survey of nearly 800 advisors worldwide also offers a glimpse at where demand is heading next.

Multigenerational and family travel topped the list of trip types generating increased client interest, cited by 69 per cent of advisors. Premium and luxury ocean cruising followed at 63 per cent, with celebration travel at 60 per cent.

Generational differences remain pronounced. Baby boomers are driving cruise demand, with 76 per cent showing demand for ocean cruising and 68 per cent for river cruising, while millennials are gravitating toward beach escapes and new luxury products and experiences.

Travellers are changing not only what they book, but how they book it.

Sixty per cent of advisors say clients are prioritizing bucket-list trips, while 42 per cent report clients booking further in advance to secure their preferred options.

Another 30 per cent are seeing travellers take fewer trips but make them longer and higher quality.

“What the data is telling us,” Belles said, “is that travel and luxury travel in particular is not slowing down at all.”

“If anything, it is accelerating.”

Virtuoso Travel Week continues in Las Vegas through Friday, Aug. 14. Watch PAX for more on-the-ground updates.

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