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A new report by Digital Luxury Group (DLG) indicates interest in luxury travel is growing, and some hotel companies and brands in particular are attracting a good deal of attention.

The report, “The World Luxury Index Hotels 2014,” was unveiled recently in partnership with the Chair of Luxury Hospitality of Ecole Hôtelie`re de Lausanne (EHL), Prof. Samad Laaroussi. It monitored over 485 million web searches throughout the world from July 2013 to June 2014 via major search engines such as Google and China-based Baidu.com. Seventy hotel brands and over 900 international destinations were included in the report.

One of the key findings in the report: Global online searches for the luxury hospitality industry increased by 7.7 percent year-over-year, suggesting travelers are thinking about luxury travel more. About 58 percent of such searches came from the United States, followed by the UK (10 percent) and China (9 percent). China experienced the greatest increase in luxury searches, boasting a 39 percent growth rate year-over-year.

Luxury searches were also broken up into three categories in the report: Upper Upscale, Luxury Major and Luxury Exclusive. The Luxury Exclusive category (including hotel brands such as Four Seasons, Kempinski and Mandarin Oriental) experienced a 9.6 percent rate of growth in searches year-over-year, making up 19 percent of all luxury searches. Upper Upscale (Hilton, Hyatt, etc.) saw a 7.9 percent jump, but received a leading 56 percent of luxury searches. Luxury Major (Sofitel, Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott) experienced a 5.9 percent rise, taking 25 percent of the pie overall.

The most searched luxury hotel groups in the world were (in order): Hilton Worldwide, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Hyatt. The most searched luxury hotel brands were Hilton, Sheraton and Westin.

However, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts was the hotel group that saw the greatest growth in interest, experiencing 20 percent more web searches over the past year. It ranked first in popularity in China and Singapore, second in Taiwan and fourth in France and Hong Kong.

These searches aren’t just empty numbers, either. Via the report, there’s an “over 99.9999 percent probability that the evolution of the number of rooms sold (as reported by STR) is statistically correlated with the evolution of online search volume (as reported by DLG).”

The world appears to be rebounding from the recession and yearning for luxury once again. The latest numbers from the World Luxury Index Hotels 2014 report reflect that sentiment.

To buy the full report, email intelligence@digital-luxury.com.

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