The richest travellers in Australia and New Zealand haven't stopped spending — they've just got pickier about where their money goes. Virtuoso's 2027 Luxe Report, released in Sydney on 30 September, calls the phenomenon "fancy-flation": clients now arrive with a fixed budget and a set of non-negotiables (the suite, the private guide, the restaurant booking) but are happy to swap the country entirely to make the maths work. Vietnam, Egypt and Albania are among the beneficiaries, as exchange rates and purchasing power start to outweigh long-held destination loyalties.
The survey drew on more than 3,100 advisors worldwide, over 400 of them in Australia and New Zealand. The outlook is rosy: 76 per cent of regional advisors expect leisure demand to grow in 2027, and 59 per cent predict higher spending per trip. Better flight connections, easier visas and new luxury hotel stock are opening doors too — Virtuoso points to improved access to Kenya's safari circuit and China's visa-free entry, which lands it at number eight among destinations on the rise.
The headline trend shift? Multigenerational family travel has knocked expedition cruising off the top spot after a three-year run — and grandparents are often the ones booking and paying. Penny Spencer of Sydney's Spencer Travel described one client who takes 38 family members away every two years and has written the trips into his will. Milestone celebrations remain the number one motivation to travel, and the two trends increasingly overlap in what Virtuoso dubs "Gen-XYZ-peditions", with some families reserving entire ships or lodges.
Japan tops the most-requested international destination list for a second year, ahead of Italy, Greece, France and Fiji, and also leads for solo travel — though Spencer reckons her own clients have moved on, pairing old favourites like Italy with first-timers Slovenia and Slovakia. Antarctica heads the destinations-on-the-rise ranking and also leads for adventure and cruising, with Vietnam, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Norway behind it. Fiji still rules family holidays and honeymoons close to home.
Two further shifts worth noting. "City-maxxing" — longer, multi-city itineraries — has matured into carefully sequenced trips that balance sightseeing with recovery; Sri Lanka followed by the Maldives is the template. And among solo travellers, wellness has jumped four places to become the leading trip type, with a particular boom in longevity-focused programmes. Women-only solo travel now appears in the top five, cited by 32 per cent of advisors. At the very top end, 29 per cent of advisors report growing demand for ultraluxe travel — think private chefs, personal trainers and helicopter transfers bundled into one all-inclusive price.
For holidaymakers, the takeaway is straightforward: value now drives the destination as much as the dream. That's good news for anyone eyeing Vietnam, Albania or Sri Lanka, and even better for travellers flexible enough to let a good advisor point them somewhere unexpected without giving up the room category they came for.
