2023 Luxury travel: Comeback for the US, all-year destination Maldives in focus
“Luxury vacations are more in demand than ever,” says Sven Schikarsky, Chief Product Officer of DER Touristik, summing up the booking situation in early 2023. Airtours also recorded “the strongest bookings in a long time” during the first few weeks of the new year. Managing Director Christian Böll of Windrose Finest Travel reports that summer reservations have been very stable. “Compared to previous years, however, we are receiving either long-term reservations for beyond the summer, or very short-term ones,” he notes. Dirk Gowin, Managing Director of Select Luxury Travel, and edeltravel Managing Director Till Brunecker have also observed a trend towards last-minute reservations, “in some cases only four weeks prior to departure.” Luxury Dreams Managing Director Michael Kern sees this development as not without problems, “because the low number of early bookings in 2022 led to massive flight cancelations and higher prices, as well as capacity bottlenecks on flights to destinations such as the Maledives for last-minute travelers.”
Summer programs: North America soars, anniversary trips, and space tourism
Dertour Deluxe customers can look forward to a portfolio with many new hotels in the Mediterranean as well as 20 percent more properties in North America. For its fiftieth birthday in April, Windrose is surprising its customers with “anniversary tours,” i.e., classic journeys, new tours through the U.S., and safaris around Asia. Select Luxury Travel has added Australia’s West coast; one of the new destinations in edeltravel’s portfolio is Saudi Arabia. Edeltravel’s new brand “Prana” offers individualized luxury healing journeys to Asia. Airtours will have launched new hotels on the islands of Mallorca, Santorini, and Sardinia as well as in South Africa, Vietnam, and in Dubai by the summer. Attika Premium is launching experiences in less touristy places in Greece tailored to individualized tastes. Luxury Dreams customers can (almost) fly to the moon: for the first time, the tour operator is offering Virgin Galactic flights into space. Luxury Dreams also focuses on Canada, Switzerland, Croatia, and Montenegro.
A well established addition to Connoisseur Circle’s luxury travel world: the digital B2B magazine CC VIP furnishes its readers with exclusive industry insights & travel news and the latest Hotel openings every other week. Register here for free.
Learn more about Connoisseur Circle’s latest hotel openings at Marshall-Haus, Stand 26.
