Rich Travelers Are Cutting Back on Their Spending

by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 5:00 PM ET, Mon April 3, 2023

Luxury travel, luxury travelers, infinity pool, wine, Mykonos, Greece

A new day, a new industry report predicting the behaviors of travelers for the year to come.

The latest industry insight comes courtesy of the MLIV Pulse survey, which is based on 465 respondents, who are mostly from the U.S. and Canada, but also from Europe. The newly unveiled data, reported by Bloomberg yesterday, reveals the following

High-end travelers are cutting back on vacation spending
They’re not interested in paying more than $500 for a hotel room
They don’t want to pay any extra for eco-friendly options

Looking closer at those survey results, Bloomberg reported that about 69 percent of survey participants said $500 was their max budget per night for a hotel room, but 24 percent are willing to spend as much as $1,000. Just five percent are willing to shell out $2,000, and even fewer, 3 percent, would pay as much as $3,000 per night.

It should also be noted that the survey participants were traders, portfolio managers, senior managers, and retail investors, according to Bloomberg. So clearly, not your average travelers.

Survey responses also indicate that the "bleisure" trend may be drawing to a close. For those not familiar, that’s the practice of adding personal vacation days to a work trip. Sixty-two percent of survey respondents who were professional investors and 56 percent who were retail investors, said they’re not engaging in more bleisure travel this year.

Revenge travel may also be tapering off. Just 7 percent of respondents said they are spending a great deal on a trip in 2023, while about one-quarter said they “might upgrade things a notch,” according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, 18 percent said they may even reduce spending. Again, the respondents here were professional traders (72 percent) and retail traders (28 percent).

Meanwhile, big-spending travelers are not all that interested in flying green to help curb climate change. The electric flying taxi, which has been hailed as a major step forward in the industry’s efforts to reduce CO2 and ease global warming, is not something well-heeled travelers say they will take advantage of until 2030 or beyond. And 37 percent of these same respondents said they never intend to make the shift to the more eco-friendly electric taxi.

Luxury travel advisors interviewed earlier this year by TravelPulse painted a slightly different picture than this latest survey. Advisors suggested many of their clients are continuing to spend big including requesting high-end upgrades, traveling more than past years, and taking pricey bucket list trips.

A separate report, this one released in March by Virtuoso, a leading global network that specializes in luxury travel and experiential travel, suggests well-heeled travelers are also keen to explore new destinations this year or so-called "secret vacation destinations."

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