Italy – the preferred luxury destination of Australian tourists

According to Virtuoso, the global luxury travel network, Italy scored top of the list for the most in-demand European hot-spot.

 

When in search of exclusive summer holidays, Australians seem to prefer intensive cultural exploration and entertaining travel experiences that lead their steps towards the European continent. The sunny Italy, to be more specific, is their favorite holiday destination.

As revealed during the 29th annual Virtuoso Travel Week conference recently hosted in Las Vegas, the Mediterranean country was on top of the list for Australian citizens choosing the high-end travel sector.

The event gathered more than 120 luxury travel advisors from Australia and more than 5.500 industry professionals worldwide for 7 days of discussing and promoting the latest trends of the sector.

Virtuoso, recognized to be the luxury travel sector’s strongest sales force, was the agency that performed a new survey aiming to reveal where high-end tourists will head for during this year’s vacations. Cruising turned out to be a popular choice.

"The growth in momentum for cruising shows no sign of slowing as the cruise sector again tops the survey results.

The cruise sector has comprehensively diversified to ensure they have product for every segment of the market with smaller ship luxury, expedition, river and sailing vessels, and Australians are in love with cruising boasting the strongest per capita cruise markets in the world.

In the past 12 months alone, we have been privileged to experience the arrival of the most luxurious cruise vessels ever built and many of our travel agency members, and their clients, have already seen the new level of luxury on offer.

This new class of upscale cruising continues to provide the ideal platform to explore unique corners of the world with touring that delivers expert insights and authentic experiences for the entire family," explained Michael Londregan, the Managing Director of Virtuoso Asia Pacific.

According to the same survey, Australians prefer the adventure travel, combined with locations providing ocean or river panorama and luxurious beach resorts. Italy is closely followed by Spain and Croatia. High-end consumers also like the United States and Japan, while people in search for domestic trips chose The Great Barrier Reef, The Kimberleys and Uluru.

Nevertheless, relaxation is the number one reason all Australians like to travel so much, no matter if the destination of choice is local or international.

Virtuoso’s market research also resulted in impressive sales for the luxury travel sector, as the registered growth was 75 per cent higher when compared to the same period last year.

 

Source: traveldailynews.asia