A new report from Virtuoso and Globetrender spotlights a collection of seven key trends set to shape the luxury travel landscape in 2025. Olivia Palamountain reports
Virtuoso has released “Luxury Travel Trend Watch: 2025”, a report produced in association with Globetrender that offers insights into how and why the affluent will be travelling in the years ahead.
Published in September, 2024 (and available to download here), the report is a summation of the luxury travel trends first revealed by Globetrender founder and CEO Jenny Southan at the 2024 Virtuoso Symposium, held at Atlantis the Royal hotel in Dubai.
From “Silver Bullet Wellness”, “Mood Boarding” and “Wander Women” to “F**k-It Lists”, “XZ Beta Travel”, “Memoirs in Motion” and “Racketeering”, the seven trends identified highlight a shift towards personalised wellness, spontaneous adventures and multi-generational travel experiences. 
“Silver Bullet Wellness” sees luxury travellers seeking personalised health and longevity programmes, with countries such as Switzerland, Spain, Germany and Thailand leading this charge, offering everything from “monk-level” meditation retreats to genetic testing and menopause therapy.
In a departure from traditional “bucket lists”, the report identifies a rise in “F**k-It Lists” – spontaneous, short-term experiences reflecting a “carpe diem” mindset. 
Meanwhile, the rise of “Wander Women” continues, with more women of all ages opting for solo, adventurous trips. Travel providers are responding with tailored experiences, such as women-only trips to Saudi Arabia and specialised retreats for pregnant and menopausal women.
The report also draws on global data from Virtuoso’s “2024 Brand & Travel Tracker Survey” (a global survey of its high-net-worth/ultra-high-net-worth clientele). This data shows luxury and high-end travel is booming: not only are advance travel bookings significantly increasing but the cruise industry is also seeing strong growth in future bookings.
To help articulate the wide-spanning and evolving needs and desires of the luxury traveller, Globetrender devised a proprietary “Luxury Traveller Journey Scale”, which measures how the correlation between wealth and worldliness affects an individual’s trip motivations.
For example, on one end of the spectrum there are newly minted high-net-worths who have travelled very little – and at the other end of the spectrum there are old money ultra-high-net-worths who have travelled the world extensively. Considering where consumers sit on this scale is vital to predicting their future needs and behaviour.
For travel advisors and partner brands, these trends present revenue-making opportunities in a luxury travel landscape that is tilting towards younger generations (the first Generation Beta babies will be born in 2025), as well as the Asia-Pacific region (Swiss financial services company UBS predicted in summer 2024 that one-third of millionaires will come from emerging markets by 2028).