TORONTO — At Virtuoso’s 2024 Canada Forum, held yesterday at The Four Seasons Toronto in Yorkville, the luxury travel agency network shared intel on how, when and where Canadian travellers are heading next, plus in-market travel trends.

Virtuoso’s high-level Forums are held around the world in each of its key markets, bringing together influential decision-makers within luxury travel.

Several of those influential decision-makers took part in yesterday’s panel discussion, answering questions and offering insights based on their agency’s activity. The panel was composed of Virtuoso Canadian  agency owners / managers and retail executives: Carly Renshaw of Renshaw Travel, Thomas Panos of Omega Travel, Stephen Smith of Direct Travel and Rob Blowes of BST Vacations.

Moderating the panel was Misty Belles, Vice President Global Public Relations for Virtuoso, who also hosted the event along with Úna O’Leary, General Manager, Canada, Virtuoso.

With US$63.6 billion in travel transactions, Virtuoso has no shortage of travel booking data and travel trend predictions.

BOOKING TRENDS

What was clear upon going through the extensive data is that travel continues to make a steady rebound following the pandemic. For example, international leisure travel is expected to increase by 26.2% this year.

For Virtuoso specifically, its Canadian network sales showed significant growth, with an increase of 22% last year.

The type of sale that saw the biggest increase within the Virtuoso network in Canada last year? Cruise, which grew by 48% in 2023. All of the travel advisors on the panel noted that they’ve been seeing steady demand for expedition cruises in particular.

Other big travel trends noted by the panel …

• Multi-generational travel was huge after the pandemic and it’s still in high demand, but it has decreased slightly since the post-COVID surge as people are now moving on to different types of travel.
• Agents say they’re seeing fewer flights booked by Canadians for Europe due to high airfares. They say Canadians are flying to the Caribbean instead, as prices are lower, or even just doing staycations.

BY THE NUMBERS

Here are more stats from Virtuoso’s data in the Canadian market …

2023 sales by category from Virtuoso’s Canadian members:

Cruises: 48%

Tours: 32%

On-sites (destination management companies): 29%

Hotels: 6%

Bookings by cruise category (YOY):

Ocean: +48%

River: +87%

Small Ships (Yacht): +38%

Expedition: +42%

Average booking window increases:

Compared to a 92-day average booking window in 2022, 2023 was up more than 14% to a 105-day average booking window

Future bookings strong, particularly for cruises:

Future sales from Virtuoso’s Canadian members are strong, with a 16% uptick in advance bookings (18-24 months out) compared to the same period in 2022. This is on track with the global percentage of 19%.

Virtuoso’s future cruise bookings from Canadian members are 32% higher than they were for 2022, outpacing global bookings, which are at 30%.