Rather than focusing on destinations, the report highlights the trends the luxury specialist believes will drive consumers this year. Black Tomato co-founder Tom Marchant explained: “For us, trends aren’t about simply identifying the destinations we’ll be exploring in the months to come, but the ways in which we’ll absorb and experience them. It’s about ‘how’ rather than ‘where’.”
Top of Black Tomato’s list of trends to watch is “storification”, which focuses on travel that embraces characters and narratives from imaginative worlds, ranging from films to novels. Black Tomato has seen a 30% increase in interest for its narrative-based trips, which include its Take Me on a Story itineraries for younger families, where journeys are inspired by characters from children’s stories.
In 2022 it launched The Grand Adventure, inspired by the life and travels of Agatha Christie, and this year The Assignment: Europe will debut, which is a European adventure themed around James Bond. “This is travel with all the drama and intrigue of the world’s most enduring movies, novels, myths and legends,” Marchant added.
Between 2019 and 2022 Black Tomato saw a 94% increase in enquiries for multi-centre travel, and in the report Marchant predicts: “While travel in 2022 was marked by nostalgia and the known, travel in 2023 will be bolder and braver, with clients wanting to push boundaries and lean into the spirit of curiosity, and parts unknown. There is a strong return to multi-centre travel, where clients want to experience not one but multiple destinations on a trip (think: Egypt, Jordan and Turkey). This kind of ‘golden-age touring’ takes some inspiration from the early spirit of travel and exploration – and is more intrepid in nature.”
Marchant expects family adventures to get “a whole lot bolder” for families with teenagers and more mature children. In late 2021 Black Tomato launched its immersive educational-themed Field Trip service for families, and in 2023 it will offer a new Tomb Raider-style helicopter-archaeology trip, where families can embrace their inner Lara Croft as they explore Mayan ruins in Guatemala.
The report also highlights “a pronounced increase” in small-group travel among friends for 2023. Black Tomato saw a 56% increase in sales for group trips in 2022 compared to 2021, which included multiple families travelling together. The average size of small groups has also increased in the same period, from nine people to 14.
Black Tomato has also coined the term “lisness” for 2023. Marchant explained: “The reverse of the old way – of tacking a day or two of relaxation onto a business trip – this is about planning a leisure trip and creating time in which to work. Wherever, whenever. We’re seeing client travels extending – in many cases into month-long ventures – with a 75/25 leisure/business split.
“It’s really about taking time to be in-situ, where the value of a strong and stable WiFi connection and the rise of flexible and remote working has paved the way for a ‘new normal’ in modern work. Infinitely remixable, this is work-life balance that actually works for the traveller.”
