Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox.
The solo travel trend is well established – and it’s creeping into the luxury sector. “Forget millennials,” writes Skift’s Samantha Shankman. “It’s their parents who have the money and time to sign up for luxury experiences around the globe. With the aid of digital communications, going alone no longer feels like tragedy but an asset.” Particularly notable is the rise of solo female travelers looking for outdoor adventure circuit. Skift reports that last year, 68 percent of luxury operator Black Tomato’s solo travelers were female — a number that the company expects to increase — and the number of women traveling with REI has grown by 60 percent since 2010.
Luxury travel is changing in other ways too. Instead of high-thread counts and butler service, affluent travelers are looking for a more personal approach. “A big part of luxury travel was [once] about the status of visiting an exotic location and staying at the best hotel,” says Tom Mieczynski, of Travel Leaders in East Greenwich, R.I. “That’s still true to some extent, but our clients are shifting to the smaller destinations and the smaller properties. The bucket-list trips have become less about the destination and more about a personal goal or connection.”
Luxury travel and spontaneity aren’t exactly known for being compatible – until now. Say hello to the Panic Button, via Black Tomato. Robb Report reports: “A hyper-speed version of its anything-but-standard approach to travel, the Panic Button allows clients who are seriously short on time to still pull off a bucket-list-worthy adventure (without a cookie-cutter package or prefab itinerary in sight).” You just hit the button on Black Tomato’s website and you’ll get a focused set of questions to begin planning your spontaneous bespoke luxury getaway.
Luxury travelers need to keep up with their fitness routines, too! Luxury Travel Magazine has rounded up some of ways in which resorts are blending fitness and the great outdoors. Ride a horse across Pebble Beach, one of Central California’s most gorgeous stretches of sand. Learn simple techniques for mindful fitness, nutrition and meditation on Martha’s Vineyard. And boat to better health in New York’s Adirondacks.