As general manager of Luxury Travel Collection (LTC), Nikki Glading has a front-row seat to the trends shaping the high-net-worth travel market.
Despite the rapid rise of AI, Glading says affluent travellers still aren’t turning to it to plan or book luxury holidays.
“They absolutely still want that human connection.”
The reason, she says, is simple. Large language models rely on broad datasets and general knowledge, while luxury travellers are paying for something AI can’t deliver: exclusive access.
“I actually put my upcoming itinerary into ChatGPT to get its opinion… and what it said to me is, ‘You won’t get access to that… that is only available for private [clients].’ And I do have the access, because the advisors in my network are amongst the best in Australia and they have their little black book.”
“We can have the Sistine Chapel opened for them at night”
That, Glading says, is where luxury advisors prove their value.
“We can have the Sistine Chapel opened for them at night. We could have a private dining experience in the Uffizi Gallery after it’s closed… we have access to experiences that people will pay for and nobody they know will ever have the same experience.”
According to Glading, luxury travel has evolved beyond personalisation.
“Customers have stopped asking what they can buy and more what they can access… Personalisation is no longer a differentiator, it’s a baseline. The differentiator now is depth: destination, local connection, slower pace and personal connection.”
That trend is also driving demand for what she calls “private everything”.
“Private jets get all the headlines, but what we’re seeing is growth in other private experiences… private transfers, private touring, helicopter transfers, yacht charters, exclusive-use villas and seamless door-to-door journeys. It’s private everything.”
Expedition travel is on the up
That demand for access extends to destination choice too. Glading points to steady growth in polar expedition travel, Antarctica and the Arctic, as well as a marked uptick in Galapagos bookings, though notably among repeat expedition travellers rather than first-timers.
“The ships get smaller, the experiences are even more personalised,” she says.
While AI won’t replace advisors, Glading believes it can make them significantly more efficient.
“We’ve got Claude in Outlook to give immediate answers to immediate questions that don’t require thought or feeling. That frees up time to give true thought and feeling to designing customer experiences… it’s about efficiency. It’s certainly not about design.”
An abundance mindset is key
The recent disruption caused by conflict in the Middle East also highlighted the value of experienced advisors. While bookings held up, Glading says advisors spent considerably more time reworking itineraries and contingency planning.
“We saw a stubbornness… perhaps the pandemic bred this rebellious traveller… we’ve seen this same resilience in the luxury traveller this time out. It was: ‘I’m still going, I’m just going to go differently.'”
Rather than losing revenue, advisors found themselves investing far more time into each booking, often securing multiple flight options to ensure clients could still reach Europe if schedules changed.
For Glading, that adaptability is what separates good advisors from great ones.
“You can have a scarcity mindset or an abundance mindset… that abundance mindset is what creates success and also brings happiness to people around you.”
