Virtuoso has shared the global luxury travel outlook with a focus on strategic insight and meaningful connection as it hosted its 2026 Symposium from 15 to 19 April at the Conrad Seoul.
The Symposium welcomed 360 leaders from Virtuoso travel agency members and preferred partners across 33 countries. The annual gathering brought together senior decision-makers to align on the trends, data and shared priorities shaping the future of luxury travel.
During the Symposium, executive vice president strategic communications David Kolner presented the latest leisure travel outlook from Oxford Economics, highlighting continued global growth through 2028 despite revised projections.
Since December 2025, international forecasts for 2026 have been adjusted lower, while domestic travel has edged slightly higher, with continued growth in both segments still expected through 2027 and 2028. In the US, forecasts for both international and domestic travel were revised downward for 2026, though overall growth remains stable. China recorded the strongest gains in the update, with international leisure travel revised higher across all three forecast years and domestic leisure travel for 2026 also raised, with overall growth projected at up to three times the global average.
Against a backdrop of mostly single-digit leisure travel growth projected by Oxford Economics, Kolner said performance across the Virtuoso network is running at roughly double that pace. Booking data from its US travel agency members showed preferred partner sales increased by 20 per cent year-over-year in both January and February 2026, followed by a 14 per cent increase in March. Demand for future travel also remains strong, with preferred bookings made one to two years in advance up 23 per cent in the first quarter compared to 2025. Average daily rates for preferred partners increased between 10 and 12 per cent per month during the quarter.
Live polling conducted during the Symposium offered a real-time perspective on the current business conditions and expectations for the year ahead. When asked how their business has been impacted by the Middle East crisis, 70 per cent of Virtuoso member agencies and 66 per cent of partners said clients are rerouting or choosing alternate destinations, while low cancellations at 11 per cent among member agencies and eight per cent among partners reflect luxury travel’s continued resilience.
When trips are postponed or canceled, concerns around personal safety and the risk of being stranded are the primary drivers, cited by 66 per cent and 64 per cent of member agencies, respectively. As travel plans shift, member agencies reported demand being redirected to other regions, led by Continental Europe at 59 per cent, followed by North and Southeast Asia at 39 per cent and Latin America and the Caribbean at 35 per cent.
Additional insights came from the global Owner/Manager Outlook Survey, conducted earlier this year during Virtuoso Forums across the network’s nine regions. The findings point to widespread confidence among agency leaders, with 78 per cent of global respondents expecting sales to increase in 2026 – 41 per cent projecting double-digit growth, 12 percent of which forecast gains of 21 to 50 per cent.
Outlooks were largely consistent across regions, though respondents in Australia & New Zealand and North & Southeast Asia expressed slightly more caution, while agencies in Greater China reported the strongest growth expectations, with 26 per cent anticipating sales increases of 21 to 50 per cent. When asked which factors are expected to impact luxury travel in 2026, geopolitical conflicts ranked highest across all regions at 88 per cent, followed by political uncertainty at 75 per cent. Artificial intelligence was viewed more optimistically, with nearly twice as many respondents viewing it as an opportunity (35 per cent) rather than a threat, led by agency owners in Canada and the US.
That confidence is also evident in hiring plans for the year ahead. Globally, 81 per cent of respondents said they plan to hire in 2026 to meet demand. Hiring intentions vary slightly by region, with 28 per cent of agencies in North & Southeast Asia and 25 per cent in Australia & New Zealand and Continental Europe reporting no hiring plans, while independent contractors remain a priority in key markets such as the US, Canada and the United Kingdom/Ireland, where roughly 60 per cent of agencies expect to add ICs.
Agency leaders also weighed in on the evolving traveller preferences expected to shape demand. Globally, discovering new destinations ranked as the top trend, cited by 72 per cent of respondents, ahead of returning to familiar places (21 per cent), signaling continued appetite for exploration. Immersive and slower-paced travel followed, selected by nearly half of respondents (49 per cent) and led by more than 60 per cent in Australia/New Zealand, the US and Canada. By contrast, price-driven behaviors such as lower-cost accommodations, shorter trips and increased price sensitivity ranked near the bottom of the list, reinforcing how the Virtuoso traveller continues to differ from broader market trends.
