A recent survey of affluent travelers revealed the popular travel choices of the well to do are not as out of reach as you might expect. The Resonance Report, a survey by Resonance Consultancy and The Luxury Institute, found that Marriott is the favored hotel brand for vacationing affluent households. Runners up included Hilton, Hyatt and Westin, along with luxury standards like Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons and Waldorf Astoria.
When looking for pure luxury, Ritz-Carlton ranked among the “top five choices” by most travelers, and scored the top spot in the Top 10 list for affluent households (net worth over $1-million), followed by Marriott, Hilton, Four Seasons, Hyatt, Westin, Waldorf Astoria, W Hotels, Fairmont and Mandarin Oriental. Interestingly, the results were clearly different for travelers under and over 55, with the older respondents preferring Hilton, Hyatt and Fairmont while the youngsters gravitated towards Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria and St. Regis.
As to where the wealthy go for holiday, The Bahamas ranked as the most popular island destination. In fact, the Caribbean swept the Top 10: Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, St. Maarten, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Aruba, Barbados and the Dominican Republic. The destination most said they would most like to visit is Turks & Caicos, which has seen double digit increases in tourism over the past few years. For mainland vacations, Italy, the UK and France are the top three European hot spots for the luxury jet set, while New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco top the list of domestic destinations.
The Resonance Report on Affluent Travel & Leisure surveyed more than 1200 USA households with incomes greater than $150,000. The Resonance Consultancy advises destinations on development, tourism and branding strategy. The Luxury Institute is a global luxury research and consulting company. We’ll feature more insights from the report in coming posts.
