The 36th annual Virtuoso Travel Week is underway in Las Vegas, where 80 AU/NZ advisors are among the 4,700 leading travel professionals from 97 countries who have gathered for the event.
Virtuoso is hosting some of the biggest brands in luxury and experiential travel this week between 10-16 August at Bellagio Resort & Casino, ARIA Resort & Casino, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, and Vdara Hotel & Spa.
Representatives from nearly 2,000 companies are currently engaged in matched morning networking tracks and self-selected afternoon appointments (more than 75,000 of them in total) and all designed to establish and strengthen relationships, increase knowledge and drive sales. Attendees include member agencies, travel advisors and preferred partners.
The event commenced on Saturday 10 August with a full day of Globetrotting sessions, which continued into Sunday. More than 1,000 Virtuoso advisors were able to select Virtuoso Communities around key interests and participate in a series of interactive presentations by Virtuoso partners. These sessions explored passion-point travel categories — cruise, adventure, family, culinary, wellness, ultra-luxe and sustainability.
Saturday’s program also included Virtuoso’s third annual Tech Summit, led by tech entrepreneur, investor and Virtuoso board member, Gilad Berenstein. The Summit focused on leveraging smart technology to enhance human connection, featuring panels on key trends, including AI, and a Startup Showcase with 15 tech businesses that delved into emerging innovations.
Senior Vice President of Network Products & Events Jennifer Campbell kicked off Sunday’s Opening Session by emphasising the network’s strong sense of community and collective voice, showcased by the event’s global turnout.
“Our varied backgrounds, business models and offerings allow us to deliver the ‘right’ experiences, backed by authentic relationships, to a richly diverse group of affluent travellers around the world,” said Campbell.
The opening session
At the opening session Virtuoso Chairman and CEO Matthew D. Upchurch took to the stage alongside special guest and close friend of the network, Simon Sinek, founder of The Optimism Company and renowned author, speaker and host of the top-rated podcast A Bit of Optimism. Returning to Virtuoso Travel Week for a fourth time, Sinek joined Upchurch for an exchange of impactful ideas and advice on leadership and purpose-led business development.
Upchurch continued with a keynote presentation focused on the central messages that synergistically building communities leads to strategic growth and increased ROI; that community enables the network to grow while strengthening both personalisation and customer satisfaction; and that the innovation of AI is a tool that can be used strategically to automate the predictable while ‘humanising the exceptional’ qualities such as trust and empathy that AI cannot replicate.
“Advisors are the direct link between consumers and their experiences. Their intelligence, skill and powerful relationships have enabled them to thrive despite challenges,” said Upchurch.
“While some in the financial sector may view them as ‘intermediaries,’ advisors are essential to a successful direct-to-consumer sales strategy, especially as the luxury market grows and diversifies, along with the Virtuoso network.”
Executive Vice President David Kolner presented key industry insights observed by Virtuoso, illustrating that travel remains a vital part of life in an ever-changing world.
Performance update and initiatives
Year-to-date sales have surpassed those of 2023 for the same January-June timeframe by 14 per cent and grew a significant 211 per cent over 2019, with future 2025-2026 sales reported as being up 38 per cent over last year.
The Virtuoso Pulse Survey revealed that 78 per cent of Virtuoso agencies and 70 per cent of preferred partners remain optimistic about their own businesses. Additionally, 80 per cent of Virtuoso agencies and 77 per cent of partners report feeling somewhat or extremely fulfilled with their work-life balance.
Virtuoso Senior Vice President, Marketing, Helen McCabe-Young explored Virtuoso’s consumer strategy and its continued focus on attracting high-value travellers to its network with a collective focus on shared growth for members, advisors and partners.
This year, Virtuoso has introduced enhanced hotel amenities, including higher commissions and guaranteed early check-in or late check-out at booking. The network has expanded with 109 new partners – 71 hotels, 26 tour and on-site partners, eight alliances and four cruise lines.
Meanwhile, 18 new members have joined, expanding Virtuoso’s presence to 58 countries – four more than last year. Most notably, preferred partner revenue has grown by 15 per cent year-over-year.
Feedback from the event
Several of Karryon Luxury’s Advisory Board members are in attendance this week in Las Vegas. They spoke to Karryon about their insights so far from the event:
“Attending Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas is a remarkable experience for anyone in the luxury travel industry. The event buzzes with energy as the world’s leading travel advisors create new relationships with top-tier suppliers showcasing their products. It’s a week where the future of luxury travel is shaped, and being part of it feels both exhilarating and empowering,” – David Brandon, Managing Director, Savenio.
“The connections made at Virtuoso Travel Week are invaluable to our businesses and our clients. Seeing my team network with our preferred partners is when the magic happens. We have proven this over many years,” – Anthony Goldman, Joint Managing Director, Goldman Travel Group; and Director, Link Travel Group.
“Greetings from VTW. I do like the new format with matched appointments in the morning and schedule appointments in the afternoon. WOW there have been some nuggets shared here at VTW!
AI has been one topic that has been discussed. Its role and place with our industry, but one saying that truly resonated with me was: “AI may answer your question, but does it really care about you or your family?” What we continue to see and appreciate is rise and relevance of the trusted advisor and they are part of ‘a smart direct to consumer strategy, in fact ‘as technology becomes more ubiquitous….people will crave authentic human connections’.
Others trends that are also relevant for our market: the booking window for Gen X is some 83 days. Millennials and Gen Z want have the real intention to travel in 2024/25 (some 15 per cent more) but it is the baby Boomers who represent two times more spend as Millennials and Gen Z.
And finally, the most interesting trend: Cool destinations (Denmark, Sweden, Iceland Norway and Finland) are hot! In fact cool destinations versus warm destinations have grown 44 per cent (H1 CY24 versus H1CY 23). Whilst that growth is exceptional warm destinations still out-sold cold destinations by 10:1,” – Neil Robertson, Head of Product, MTA
Virtuoso Travel Week will continue through to Friday, 16 August, concluding with a gala event.
