More holidaymakers are spending heavily on the best weeks of the year.
With a 48 per cent increase in the past five years, luxury travel has grown twice as fast as all other types of overseas trips, which grew by 24 per cent.
This is the result of a special evaluation of the World Travel Monitor, which is conducted by IPK International and commissioned by trade show ITB Berlin.
Luxury trips were defined as all short trips with spending of more than €750 per night and all long trips costing more than €500 per night.
In 2014, the world population took 46 million international luxury trips. The market share of these rose from 3.9 per cent in 2009 to 4.6 per cent in 2014.
A total of €172 billion was spent on international luxury travel last year. This means that for foreign travel, every €80 was spent on luxury products.
More than €1,000 per night was spent by luxury travellers from the United Arab Emirates, India, Kuwait, Brazil, Australia, Canada and China (in descending order).
Turnover did not increase due to higher spending per person but rather from a rising number of travellers. Growth drivers were mostly new customers in emerging markets, who moved into luxury travel, or those who returned to the market after the crisis, such as US travellers.
The largest source markets are the US, with 9.2 million foreign luxury trips, and China, with 6.9 million. Others include Japan, Canada and Australia.
An increasing number of people are ready to spend a lot of money for quality
In Europe, most luxury trips are taken by the British, with 1.5 million, ahead of the French and Germans.
The largest growth rate was in the number of luxury trips undertaken by the Chinese, followed by the US, Canada, Taiwan, Korea and the UAE. Russia also showed strong growth until 2013 but the figures declined last year. The luxury travel markets in Japan (-20 per cent), Mexico and Scandinavia also fell.
The most popular luxury travel destination by far was the US, with 6.2 million trips, ahead of China and Mexico. In Europe, Italy and Germany share first place with 2.2 million luxury travel visitors each, ahead of France and Great Britain.
Holidays abroad represent the dominant share of all luxury trips with 74 per cent. The most popular types of luxury holidays are tours, with 29 per cent, followed by city trips, beach holidays and cruises.
The remaining 26 per cent of luxury trips are on business, with meetings, incentives, conventions and events (MICE) as the travel purpose for most of these trips.
For luxury travel planning the internet is used far more than on average – but only for information.
Half of all luxury travellers book their holiday through a travel agent, which is a much higher share than for other travellers.
Martin Buck, Messe Berlin’s director of travel and logistics, said: “Many travellers define luxury differently today to previously.
“Instead of magnificent hotel furnishings or ‘bling-bling’, an experience that is priceless in its own way can be enormously valuable.
“Luxury today means unique experiences combined with the highest levels of comfort and individual services.
“An increasing number of people are ready to spend a lot of money for quality.”
The World Travel Monitor is based on the findings of representative interviews carried out every year with more than 500,000 people in more than 60 global travel markets.
• Trade show ITB Berlin 2016 will take place from March 9 to 13. More details are available at www.itb-convention.com.