- New data suggests luxury travel is shifting from spontaneity to familiarity.
- Knowing the best surf break, hotel room, tennis court, or restaurant table removes friction and decision fatigue.
- While affluent travellers increasingly seek belonging, most travellers still prioritise novelty due to cost and time constraints.
For some, the novelty of travel is dwindling. Not in the sense that some of the ultra-wealthy no longer hit the skies in search of some much-needed R&R. But the pull to discover new frontiers might be losing its romance in this increasingly globalised world.
That’s, at least, according to new data from the Luxury Group by Marriott International, that claims 93% of high-net-worth travellers prefer to return to destinations they already love, with 89% more likely to revisit places where they feel a meaningful connection.
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It speaks to a new travel trend that’s prioritising familiarity and convenience over adventure and uncertainty. For those that know the best spot to catch a morning surf, which luxury hotel has the best tennis court, or even which table of their favourite restaurant is quietest, repetition becomes a form of efficiency.
For high net worth individuals, spending summer in the same coastal town, winter in the same alpine village, and spring in the same city apartment can provided a much-needed relief from decision-making and spontaneity.
How many times did you revisit your favourite restaurant or cocktail bar this year? How many times did you run the same route or return to your favourite beach? There’s something to this sense of familiarity that comes with being a regular, in being known without having to introduce yourself every time.
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That pattern looks markedly different outside the rarefied world of high-net-worth travel, however. According to separate research from Talker Research on behalf of Apple Vacations, just one in three American travellers returns to the same destination year after year, a reminder that most travel decisions remain shaped by cost, time, and the pressure to make each trip “count.” Novelty, for many, is still a necessity rather than a choice.
Travel, at the top end, at least, is starting to resemble that feeling: less about discovery, more about belonging. What that does mean, however, is that the scope becomes intentionally smaller, which I’m not entirely ready to embrace: I still love a moment of rare discovery, stumbling upon a new hole in the wall spot where the locals eat, or on a hidden bay built straight into cove, untouched by selfie sticks and tour buses.
But for those who can go anywhere at any time, travel is beginning to resemble something closer to belonging than daily discovery. And for the ultra-wealthy, that’s increasingly becoming worth its weight in gold.
