Luxury Travel Advisor’s ULTRA Summit kicked off Monday, May 5, bringing together top-tier travel advisors and suppliers. Cameron Sperance, content/editorial director, Questex Travel, began the day with a presentation titled, “The Travel Advisor’s Place in an Industry at a Crossroads.”
Notably, despite economic uncertainty, 76 percent of attending advisors reported that their clients spend between $10,000 and $50,000 per vacation. (The plurality—44 percent—said their clients spend between $25,000 and $50,000 per trip.) In addition, 66 percent of advisors total between $1 million and $5 million in personal sales volume annually. Seven percent sell $5 million or more annually.
As for the audience makeup, 56 percent are independent contractors. Just about one-third (32 percent) have 50 or fewer clients; 29 percent actually have more than 200. In the middle, 27 percent of advisors say they have 51 to 100 clients and 12 percent have 101 to 200 personal clients. Looking at the client, nearly half of advisors (46 percent) say their average client is 55 to 65 years old. Three in 10 (30 percent) reported their clients are 35 to 54 years old and a quarter (24 percent) say their clients are 66 to 80 years old.
“I want to highlight some opportunities here because Bain came out with a study last year that says 80 percent of the luxury goods market will be Millennials or Gen Z by 2030, so that shows quite a bit of opportunity in that 35- to 54-year-old demographic,” said Sperance.
In further good news, most advisors (90 percent) indicate that their 2025 sales would surpass 2024 levels. Added Sperance: “Despite all the noise that we're hearing right now, more than half of advisors expect between 20 and 25 percent of growth over the next five years. Something I really want to highlight here, too, is that a pretty small percentage—only 5 percent—expect less than 5 percent growth [over that span].”
Along the same lines, about two-thirds (63 percent) say they expect the luxury travel market to increase in the next 12 months. That’s certainly true on the supplier side, as many advisors noted their excitement for new cruise lines—especially the hotel brands like The Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Orient Express and Aman—that are hitting the waters, luxury train travel, small-group tour offerings and boutique hotels opening globally, and more.
“One of the interesting statistics I've seen with The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is 50 percent of those who are actually taking it are first-time cruisers, so [there’s] a lot of opportunity there.”
Advisors also indicated that they are generally happy with the service they receive from suppliers (85 percent). Some issues, however, include a lack of global alignment across regions, longer wait times and less personal interactions. Fewer advisors are pleased with the service they receive from DMCs (54 percent). Similar issues include delayed response time, price and the destinations’ inability to handle the number of requests.
That said, advisors are staying on top of their operations in order to become more profitable (according to 63 percent of attendees). Some are doing this by adding or changing their fees, reorganizing and hiring staff/bringing on ICs, focusing on profitability (not just sales) and implementing new management systems.
We also identified nine areas that present the greatest opportunities for 2025 and beyond in terms of driving profitability: focusing on luxury; cruises (and expedition cruises, in particular); multigenerational travel; solo and independent travel; group business; weddings/celebrations; leveraging artificial intelligence; LGBTQ+ travel; and luxury meetings and events.
About half of advisors (51 percent) are already using AI in their businesses. The top uses include helping customize itineraries; finding recommendations in destinations; creating, polishing and streamlining social posts and emails; and for travel planning ideas.
“I did want to discuss one of the things that I keep seeing on LinkedIn: Is AI the demise of the travel advisor? And you see a lot of people, some people saying yes, some people saying no. The more and more I hear in travel is no, it truly is a supplement, not a replacement,” said Sperance.
“Accor CEO Sebastien Bain, he has not been to words. He was in New York two weeks ago for a press roundtable and it was really interesting hearing his take. He had had a meeting with Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI (which operates ChatGPT), and he claims Sam Altman told him that travel is the one area that's pretty safe from AI because it is already so understaffed relative to workloads, but also it's so dependent on human interaction and that there really is just a need for supplemental help here.”
When it comes to the fastest growing travel trends, advisors said: exotic/emerging destinations, adventure travel, cruises, family travel, and luxury villa/home rentals.
Concluding the presentation, Sperance said, “I do like to end on a high note, though, and what’s giving advisors optimism [is] continued demand for luxury travel, new tools and technology and, most of all, the human spirit.”
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