Virtuoso maps out European plans

In Europe, there are now 26 members including 10 agencies in the UK. Virtuoso has 375 agency members worldwide, representing more than 9,800 advisors and has also recently announced its intention to expand in Asia, with five members there.

“We started to really reach out to the UK at the end of last year and while for the moment, the 10 members we have are London-based, we definitely want to have more in the regions,” said Tony Shepherd, consultant for Virtuoso’s EMEA business development. “That could be in Newcastle, Manchester and the west country or home counties for example; we are talking to three agencies at the moment.

“Having multiple agencies in any one location is not the goal – it’s quality not quantity but in somewhere like New York or London where there’s a high concentration of affluent travellers and agencies, that’s inevitable,” he added.

The luxury network’s first European owner/manager meeting will be followed by its first European Virtuoso City Tours, set to take place June 6-10 and November 7-11 next year, including stops in London and Paris.

The tours are designed so preferred suppliers can move from city to city to meet with frontline advisors and managers and as the network grows within Europe, Virtuoso said these tours will be extended to other cities.

Virtuoso has also made a bid for a bigger slice of the UK market by reaching out recently to the consumer press here, with executives visiting London to spread the word about the power of a good travel advisor, and the value represented when clients travel to a Virtuoso preferred partner.

The UK membership of 10 agencies means there are now 244 travel advisors represented under the Virtuoso umbrella.

Many of them now have searchable profiles on Virtuoso.com which means UK travellers – or those from anywhere in the world – can start to search the site to look for a travel advisor to book with, either based on the location of where they want an agent to be based, or by an agents’ specialisation.

“As we grow in Europe, we will look to have a Virtuoso office here, but I don’t think we are there yet,” said Shepherd. “Having said that – we are all about co-creation, so if members start to tell us they want an office here, then we have to listen.”

Upon marking its UK arrival, Virtuoso surveyed its members here for luxury travel trends and found “active or adventure travel” to be the most favoured trend, covering everything from “boundary-pushing solo travel” to “spiritual development”.

The strong preference for active travel was followed by “travelling with immediate family, spa and wellness travel and villa rentals” as the things most important to UK travellers.

South-east Asia was deemed the top emerging destination, with Vietnam the favourite, followed by Cuba and South Africa as key emerging spots for popularity. The US is the most popular overall destination for the British clients of Virtuoso’s UK members. followed by Spain and Italy.

“Luxury travel sales remain strong in the UK and other countries in Virtuoso’s global network report the same positive news,” said David Kolner, senior vice president of global member partnerships at Virtuoso. “And interestingly, the destinations and motivations for the luxury traveller are almost universal, no matter where consumers live.”