A panel of Virtuoso agency owners and senior executives openly discussed several travel trends and focus areas they are currently witnessing in the luxury travel market with media at Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas last week.

Globus has made a bold play at the intimately sized group touring trend, introducing more than 50 new Small Group Discovery tours, while making many of its legacy core trips available on a trimmed back capacity.

Explora Journeys is set to announce a new luxury boutique for EXPLORA II in the coming days, a substitute to the Rolex shop offered on board sister-ship EXPLORA I, LATTE can reveal. The second ship in the ultra-luxury cruise line’s fleet is slated to commence operation in mid-next month.

AmaWaterways has started pairing its river cruises with ocean voyages, packaged through Australian wholesalers, to offer new ways to explore Europe.

Virtuoso made a number of significant changes to the format of the ‘Fashion Week of travel’ (ie. the annual  Virtuoso Travel Week) in 2024, with perhaps the biggest shake-up being the scrapping of assigned appointments, flagged by LATTE in June.

Virtuoso’s Misty Belles, Global PR, shared insight from its ‘data warehouse’ at Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas last week to help paint a broader picture of the trends and patterns of luxury travellers who book with network agencies.

Virtuosos have been challenged to think “differently” and “more deeply” about Australia’s diversity for their clients putting off a holiday down under by Tourism Australia’s Managing Director, Phillipa Harrison.

Virtuoso’s Chairman and CEO, Matthew Upchurch, offered insight on the global luxury travel network’s overarching strategy and vision at last week’s Virtuoso Travel Week.

Luxury travel network Virtuoso is preparing to launch a new member facing website homepage that streamlines search functionality, a bugbear of the current platform for travel advisors.

Virtuoso hosted its Under One Sky lunch on Monday 12 August, during the 36th annual Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas. Under One Sky brought together the network’s top advisors and preferred partners who share a passion and commitment to creating a more sustainable future for travel and tourism.

Virtuoso has more than doubled its sales volume from the start of January to 30 June 2024 compared to pre-COVID levels, reaching a peak high of 211%

The evolution of Virtuoso’s amenity offering with Preferred Hotels is bringing in new business to the consortia, says Cory Hagopian, Senior Vice President, Sales & Partnerships.