The six-figure vacation surge

The travel industry is riding a wave of elevated demand for ultraluxury vacations, with six-figure getaways becoming standard fare for a small but growing segment of travelers.

Travel advisors and suppliers say these trips, which involve a spend of $100,000 or more, have become more common due to various factors, such as rising costs across the travel industry and the continued prioritization of travel and experiences among high-net-worth individuals. Highlighting the magnitude of this trend, Virtuoso reported that bookings of $150,000 or more made in 2024 for travel this year and next surged 81% compared to the same period in 2023.

In 2024, the Mastercard Economics Institute anticipated that strong consumer spending momentum would continue as people “prioritize meaningful experiences and allocate more of their budgets to travel.” That comes as prices have risen in travel: According to CoStar, the U.S. hotel industry in 2024 not only reported record-high ADR but also found that the number of hotels with daily rates at or above $1,000 had grown from 22 in 2019 to about 80 last year.

And the number of people able to spend that much shows no sign of decline: David Kolner, executive vice president of Virtuoso, said in January that travel sales should maintain their growth trajectory, citing a UBS Global Wealth Report last year that predicted a 15% increase in millionaires by 2028, with the U.S. leading the way.

So which travel advisors are booking these trips? And what does a six-figure vacation entail? From private castle stays to yacht charters, here’s what some industry players say about what they’re booking and at what price point as they serve travel’s biggest spenders.

—Christina Jelski

Logistics and privacy drive price of multigenerational travel

By Christina Jelski

For luxury travel advisor Amberley Dough, multigenerational travel represents one of three key categories driving six-figure vacation bookings, along with private jet or yacht excursions and expedition travel.

“More families just want to get out and experience things together, especially post-Covid,” said Dough, who works with Nashville Luxury Travel. “Every week I’m getting more trip requests for families wanting to take their kids and grandkids to experience something amazing together.”

A recent Ireland heritage tour Dough arranged for a family of eight illustrates the trend. The two-week journey, costing around $125,000 for land arrangements alone, centered around tracing the family’s ancestry. Working with a genealogist who conducted pretrip research, the itinerary included visits to ancestral homes and historical sites significant to the family’s history.

The trip also included unique experiences like an Irish Wild Day tour featuring a “famine actress” who provided historical re-enactments before escorting her guests to a private castle. An exclusive tour like this, Dough said, typically runs from $3,500 to $4,500. A private driver, considered essential for navigating Ireland’s narrow roads, costs around $1,200 to $1,600 daily, including the driver’s overnight accommodations.

Dough’s ultraluxe Ireland itineraries also typically incorporate a private castle stay, with these types of accommodations running around $25,000 a week. Some clients also opt for stays at iconic Irish properties like Adare Manor or Ashford Castle that cost more than $2,000 per night. Travel insurance typically adds 10% to the total trip cost.

These high-end journeys represent a growing segment of Dough’s business. “I’m definitely seeing more of them,” she said. “I’m working on two six-figure trips just right now, whereas last year, I might have done three total.”

Costs of luxe safaris can easily climb

By Robert Silk

Exeter Safari Co., a Tampa-based tour operator specializing in luxury African safaris, makes between five and 10 six-figure bookings per month, said co-founder Scott Simpson.

Most of those are in the $100,000 to $200,000 range, with an occasional booking of up to $500,000. 

The bookings are often for multigenerational family vacations, he said, though six-figure bookings also aren’t uncommon for couples or smaller family groups. 

Exeter’s safari tours encompass a wide range of African destinations, from Egypt to South Africa, as well as Indian Ocean locales such as Madagascar and the Maldives. 

Simpson said that reaching the $100,000 booking threshold is easy to do at some of the properties Exeter works with. 

At the Singita brand’s Kwitonda Lodge on the edge of Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, for example, lodging alone can cost $6,000 to $7,000 per room, per night, he said, with the cost for a family of four for three nights totaling around $36,000. Gorilla-trekking permits in the park are also pricey, costing roughly $1,500 per person, per day.

At Ol Jogi, a private 58,000-acre wildlife conservancy in Kenya, lodging can cost tens of thousands of dollars per night. And a four-night private charter of a luxury dahabiya vessel on the Nile through the supplier Kazazian Cruises can cost $250,000 for eight berths. 

Many Exeter itineraries also include several charter flights. Sometimes, those can add up to $100,000 on their own, Simpson said. 

Inflation alone has driven much greater frequency of six-figure bookings for Exeter. The average trip cost has doubled since 2019, Simpson added, even while the company’s margins have stayed put.

He explained that simple supply-and-demand dynamics are driving that inflation. Many ultraluxurious safari lodges have eight rooms or less. But they might sit on 100,000 acres or more of private land and require a staff of 60 to 70 people. So that handful of rooms have to cover all that expense.

“You’re paying for exclusivity,” Simpson said.

Who are the travelers buying six-figure trips?

By Jamie Biesiada

For the travel advisors who book six-figure trips, there is no single formula for success or one type of client who spends that much. 

For Julie Shifrin, a Chicago-based advisor with Embark Beyond, six-figure bookings are a regular occurrence. 

Her clients tend to be in their late 50s or 60s. They’re done putting their children through school. They’ve amassed some wealth over the course of their careers in law, medicine, dentistry or as second- or third-generation business owners. And they have the itch to travel while they’re still healthy.

“That’s a big impetus to do these bucket-list trips,” Shifrin said. “That’s what I field most. They want to go on safari. They want to do Peru. They want to do these things they’ve read about, and they’ve got to do it before they can’t do it.”

This month, she has a client celebrating a 60th birthday with family in Punta Mita. They booked a seven-bedroom villa at the Susurros del Corazon for $143,605. It will be fully staffed, and Shifrin has arranged activities like yoga, pickleball and dinners on the beach.

This fall, another couple is embarking on what Shifrin believes is her single biggest booking: an itinerary with the Four Seasons Private Jet Experience totaling $438,000 ($219,000 per person, double occupancy). The jet will take them from Seattle to Japan, Bali, the Seychelles, Rwanda, Morocco, Colombia and the Galapagos Islands before its final stop in Fort Lauderdale.

Shifrin experienced the jet during an event hosted by Four Seasons and TCS World Travel, the private jet expedition company she booked the clients through. It was an experience she said helped her sell the product.

“The best thing for me was having the opportunity to be on the jet and feel the luxury of the aircraft, meet the crew and know that they have choices planned for meals and beverages,” Shifrin said. It “gave me confidence to discuss the nuances of this luxury product.” 

Her formula for success over 25 years as a travel advisor has been unorthodox — she operates by word of mouth only, doing no social media or any other advertising. It seems to work: Some clients have been with Shifrin for more than 20 years.

Janelle Ruhumuliza, owner of Embark Beyond affiliate Lilacs & Chai in San Diego, has built a business planning travel for professional athletes. 

But despite their wealth, they are not the source of her six-figure bookings. 

In the past two years, one client who works in the medical industry has planned four six-figure vacations with Ruhumuliza ranging in cost from $175,000 to $378,000. 

These include a $175,000 charter of the five-cabin yacht Boji in Greece in May 2023 and a trio of holiday season bookings: a $332,000 stay at the Santosha Villa Estate in Anguilla in 2022, a $378,000 charter of the six-cabin yacht Turquoise in the British Virgin Islands in 2023 and, most recently, a $320,000 booking for a 2024 stay at the Long Bay Villas in Anguilla.

While lucrative, they are complicated, detailed trips.

“You have to have almost project management-level facilitation just to make sure everything goes perfectly,” she said.

Ruhumuliza typically charges planning fees of anywhere from $500 to $2,500 based on trip complexity. For the six-figure trips, fees tend to be on the higher side.

She offered several pieces of advice for advisors who are considering breaking into the world of ultrahigh-net-worth clients: “Be transparent. Be quick.”

In the luxury space, she said, a response time of two to four hours is standard. And it’s important to be available when those clients are traveling if something goes wrong.

“There is a different level of care for that type of client,” said Ruhumuliza. “They’re not for everyone.”

How one tour operator cultivates its luxury clientele

By Brinley Hineman

At Pelorus Travel, there is nothing exceptional about six-figure trips: Last year, 66% of the luxury tour operator’s bookings cost at least $100,000. 

Pelorus attributes that to having clients who are attracted to its high level of attention and detail: 37% of the company’s bookings last year “were from travelers who felt no other company understood their real needs,” a spokesperson said.

“The way that we operate at Pelorus is we interview our clients in a fairly detailed manner and understand the intent of their travel,” said Gwen Nicol, head of sales for the U.S. “We want to understand how they want to feel at the end of the trip.” 

Part of tapping into what Pelorus clients want involves an in-depth interview to understand the intent of a customer’s travel experience. 

Jake Pickering, head of global partnerships and business development, called it a “destination-last, client-first perspective.” 

The company last year orchestrated a custom, experience-based trip for a couple who wanted to spend a highly active two weeks in New Zealand, Nicol said. 

The trip cost $120,000, but this was not for the “typical luxury experience,” Nicol said. Instead, the couple wanted to spend their vacation focused on cycling and hiking across the country, some days biking 50 to 100 miles and hiking five to 10 miles. 

The company said that around 40% of the trip cost went toward accommodations and the rest paid for the experiences, guides, Pelorus Travel designer time and 24/7 support while traveling. The price included domestic travel arrangements but not international flights.

It seems the couple was pleased: They requested Pelorus plan another active trip for them this year, Nicol said. 

High-end clients want exclusivity on cruise vacations

By Andrea Zelinski

Six-figure trips make up about 20% of Diego Riveron’s cruise bookings, but about half of his clients who favor these big-dollar trips book three or four of them a year, he said. 

One recent example was a 68-day Grand European Sojourn on the Regent Seven Seas Splendor totaling $102,665. The all-inclusive package included a $100,597 cruise fare with business-class flights from Fort Myers, Fla., to Reykjavik, Iceland, and back from Athens, a precruise hotel stay, transfers, shore excursions, gratuities, WiFi and drinks, along with $2,058 for travel insurance.

Riveron, a luxury travel advisor at Miami Beach-based Luxury Cruise Connections, said these travelers are looking for more exclusive destinations and itineraries that offer a refined experience.

“I am observing a growing interest among clients in exploring unique and unconventional cruise itineraries that offer a sense of adventure while still providing the luxurious amenities they are accustomed to,” he said. 

They want small to midsize ships, expect luxurious amenities and have more interest in off-peak bookings to avoid the crowds. They are also growing more interested in luxury expedition cruising, he said. 

His strategy for building and maintaining his client base is to consistently deliver prompt and efficient communication to establish trust and confidence in his service. He typically finds clients through strategic email and social marketing campaigns focused on high-end cruise products, although he generates a significant amount of business through referrals. 

His clients expect a high level of personalization, he said, so another strategy to keep them is to customize their vacation experiences to best align with their interests and preferences, such as by recommending specific itineraries, suite types and amenities he knows fit with their travel style. 

Luxury Cruise Connection’s clientele, affluent travelers who are between 65 and 75 years old, want extensive and immersive experiences on grand voyages, expedition cruises and world cruises, said Carlos Edery, CEO and co-founder of the agency. These clients are investing in large suites with personalized service, exclusive onboard amenities, tailor-made excursions and unique cultural and adventure experiences to justify the price tag, he said.