October 2005
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National News Luxury travel
Relaxation and indulgence are top attractions on most luxury travel itineraries. But for some wealthy vacationers, having a unique educational experience has become the most coveted souvenir. Luxury travel has grown rapidly over the last decade and is now the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry, industry observers say. For example, D.K. Shifflet & Associates, a travel research firm in Falls Church, Va., estimates that rooms for non-business travelers at luxury hotels have risen to more than 26 million in 2004, up from 20 million in 2000, and have doubled in the last 10 years. But the traditionally hedonistic nature of luxury travel is in many cases now tempered by the desirability of having an educational component in a luxury vacation.
The notion of traveling to self-actualize, find oneself, grieve or recover is nothing new. Whether it's to get over the death of a loved one, the collapse of a marriage, or to steer teens straight, most of us believe that travel is good medicine. In an exclusive National Geographic Traveler/Yahoo! poll, more than 90 percent of respondents said they believed leisure travel has therapeutic benefits. Nearly 85 percent said they would consider taking a trip to deal with the death of a loved one, a relationship breakup, or other similar circumstances. And seeing how other people live, or have lived, can have a powerful effect on how you view your life back home, experts say.
The travel industry is beginning to look beyond the nuclear family and offer more options to single parents and same-sex couples traveling with their children. Tour operators are offering specialized trips that cater to those markets, with more international destinations, while a handful of hotel chains are adjusting their pricing to eliminate supplementary charges for single travelers at certain times of the year. Gay and lesbian travel has long been seen as a lucrative market, estimated at $56 billion a year, according to the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Family travel represents a small but growing slice of that market.
Now that spas are turning up in airports, malls and beauty salons, destination spas are increasingly offering unique services and products to differentiate themselves from mainstream purveyors of massages and facials. And thanks to the girlfriends' getaway phenomenon, even the most exclusive spas are offering discounts for groups as small as six or eight people. Spas are attracting more and more couples, teens, pregnant women and men.
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