The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Travel like the super-rich (without being a millionaire)
Many of us are ready to splash out on our next trip, but with the right advice even holidays of a lifetime don’t have to use up all your life savings, finds Emma Featherstone
This is the year of the upgrade. We are investing in our holidays, making up for lost time and trying to eke out each last drop of enjoyment. The overall amount travellers have been spending on trips with tour operator Scott Dunn so far in 2022 is up 25 per cent on 2019. At luxury travel company Carrier, meanwhile, the average booking value for a trip rose from £16,000 in 2019 to £22,000 in 2021.
Both firms believe this increase cannot simply be attributed to rising costs over the past couple of years. “I think customers have opened their minds and let their imaginations run away with them,” says Simon Jeffries, head of product and commercial at Carrier.
Minds are wandering towards fresh destinations (French Polynesia, Oman and more offbeat US spots, such as Cape Cod and Portland, are piquing interest among Carrier’s customers), a desire for privacy (think countryside villas for multi-generational stays) and super-luxurious trips.
Sinking more money into each break isn’t confined to holidaymakers with heaving bank accounts, however. At Unique Caribbean Holidays, the in-house tour operator of Sandals Resorts, the majority of booking amendments made by customers over the past few months have been flight upgrades.
Indeed, it appears that many travellers who have saved a little money during the global shutdown are coveting the holiday habits of the one per cent. The super-rich skirted tricky and fast-moving border rules in creative ways. Private jet use bloomed (total flight hours were up 56 per cent in January 2022 compared with January 2020, according to fractional ownership aircraft provider Flexjet), private islands were snapped up and luxury yachts became to billionaire entrepreneurs what gadget-laden sports cars are to James Bond.
Some 993 superyachts – defined as vessels over 79ft long – were bought worldwide through brokerage sales in 2021. In 2019 that number was 501, according to luxury yacht broker Cecil Wright & Partners. The boom in sales has, in turn, led to an uptick in interest in hiring such a vessel – and
yacht charter company High Point Yachting has seen the market move away from corporate customers and towards families.
Meanwhile, exclusive membership services, such as Scott Dunn Private, are proving increasingly popular. This offshoot of the tour operator, aimed at high-net-worth customers, had been operating by word of mouth for around a decade until a dizzying travel landscape led tourists to become “more needy”, according to Jules Maury, head of the service. PCR testing, passenger locator forms and border regulations can all be more easily navigated if you have a travel adviser – and a global team – on hand 24/7.
Of course, the average holidaymaker might wonder how this differs from the service offered by a traditional travel agent. “We proactively reach out and build relationships and discuss trips a year or two years ahead,” says Maury. “Our guests are people who have made a bit of money.”
UK members include lawyers, people
working in the financial sector and entrepreneurs, their ages running from about 40 to 65. From organising a private performance by the operatic tenor Andrea Bocelli, to arranging a visit to a leading Italian jeweller to design a customised piece of jewellery, Maury’s team and their little black book of local contacts create amazing experiences.
For those who crave such insider knowledge, but don’t plan on sinking hundreds of thousands of pounds into their annual holidays, Maury has some tips. She suggests investing in local guides (say an eminent Egyptologist for your first trip to the pyramids) and talking to those in the know, such as the hotel concierge or hotel manager.
‘I think customers have opened their minds and let their imaginations run away with them’
Should you still crave some of the trappings of super-rich travel, however, then how about reserving the top cabin on a cruise line’s new yacht or reserving a seat on a luxury semi-private jet? The latter is available through Aero, a service that was first trialled in 2019 and now whisks families to the likes of Geneva, Milan and Nice via direct flights through private terminals for £1,200 return per passenger.
Uma Subramanian, Aero’s chief executive, says that its customers enjoy “80 per cent of the value of private jet travel for 20 per cent of the cost”. They can save up to four hours of airport fuss, sidestepping the paperwork-laden check-in queues (typical of post-Covid travel) and the slalom of duty-free aisles.
There are many other means by which you can slip on the costume of the super-rich on your next luxury holiday. For full immersion, try the “sky’s the limit” options (right). Or, should your budget be slightly less stratospheric, our “upgrade” options will still be sufficiently luxurious.