It’s been a tough year for tourism on Maui, but positive signs are emerging. Virtuoso, a luxury travel agent network that books exclusive vacations around the world, said its sales for Maui resorts are up 4% for the first six months of the year. For the winter holiday or “festive” season, sales are up a whopping 66%. A network spokesperson on Monday, Aug. 12 said that West Maui/Lahaina bookings are about 7% lower than Wailea, which makes sense given the incredible fire damage to Lahaina in August of last year. “Even with the noticeable impacts on tourism to Maui, we Read more
Virtuoso
Luxury travel is booming like never before, including high-end cruise trips, and hotel prices are jumping. Virtuoso, the leading global network specializing in luxury and experiential travel, is hosting its 2023 Symposium this week in Montréal. During the event’s General Session, Virtuoso Executive Vice President David Kolner presented proprietary data and industry insights before an audience of the industry’s top professionals from 35 countries. As a sign of travel’s continued rebound, Kolner shared that Virtuoso bookings for 2023 are 91 percent higher than they were in 2019 leading into 2020, and 62 percent higher than 2022. That’s truly remarkable. “With Read more
The number of air passenger complaints to Canada’s transport regulator has more than tripled over the past year, soaring past 42,000 as of this month, Canadian Press reports. Complaints totalled about 13,400 as of March 31, 2022, before skyrocketing to unprecedented highs in the ensuing 12 months, according to Canadian Transportation Agency reports. They hit 36,000 in late January, and rose by another 17 per cent since then. Ottawa recently announced $75.9 million in new funding to help deal with the backlog. Canadian Press reports another $11 million was given to the CTA last year, and that the number of Read more
The travel rebound is surging to levels even experts didn’t expect. Global luxury travel network Virtuoso gathered data and insights from its network of travel advisors, preferred partners and high net worth/ultra-high net worth clientele based on its data warehouse of more than $49.5 billion in transactions and an ongoing series of surveys. The company found that, despite the challenges, travel sales in 2023 are pacing 47 percent higher than 2019. Virtuoso also reports strong interest in summer visits to the United States, Italy, France, Canada, and Greece. The results of the Virtuoso report were shared at luxury travel’s leading Read more
