Skift Take
Ultra-wealthy travelers are growing in number, and many are willing to pay for expertise in fulfilling their champagne wishes and caviar dreams. However, serving these clients, especially the newly rich, can put advisors to the test.
The growing ranks of newly minted billionaires and others of extreme wealth is testing the ingenuity of travel advisors and turning the traditional idea of deluxe travel on its head.
For Michael Albanese, co-founder of Los Angeles-based Element Lifestyle, serving the requests of ultra-affluent clients has meant arranging for a private magic show with Penn & Teller in Las Vegas for just eight people and delivering penguins to a hotel room for a birthday surprise.
[caption id="attachment_334107" align="alignleft" width="300"] Remote Lands CEO Catherine Heald[/caption]
Catherine Heald, CEO of Remote Lands, a New York-based agency specializing in high-end travel to Asia, has arranged for clients to trek to the Everest Base Camp with Tashi Tenzing, grandson of Sherpa Tenzing who made the historic first climb to the summit with Edmund Hillary in 1952. She also had the clients transported by helicopter to Mustang to spend a night with the Nepalese royal family before returning to Kathmandu.
Who’s Who
Who are these newly affluent clients, and how do their demands differ from their counterparts with fortunes that have older origins? Travel advisors who focus on the highest earners say the newcomers are usually younger and more flamboyant in their preferences.
“Some old-money European clients have been raised in an environment where one must not flaunt one’s wealth, whereas new American money is often happy to post their extravagant trav
