Luxury Travel

The luxury goods market is going to be worth more than $450 billion by 2025 and many of its trends are relevant to travel as well. Younger consumers see brands in a different way than previous generations — and for them consistency is key.

Hotel loyalty programs are evolving especially with new forms of accommodation coming online. Change is inevitable but that doesn't mean everyone is going to be happy.

Now that Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival Corp. have made serious moves in the expedition space, is it still a "niche" sector of the cruise industry? We expect to see more activity in the coming years from players big and small.

With older people much more confident about travel than they were a couple of decades ago, it's perhaps understandable that they are happier to travel on their own.

Forget millennials. It's their parents who have the money and time to sign up for luxury experiences around the globe. With the aid of digital communications, going alone no longer feels like tragedy but an asset.

With expedition cruising set for serious growth over the next few years, it is understandable that one of the big cruise companies has decided to get more involved. The question now is will the others follow?

With luxury travelers getting more adventurous it is not a surprise to see expedition cruising growing in popularity. French company Ponant is making a big push in North America, something that is likely going to benefit the sector as a whole.

Hotel-cruise crossovers are pretty rare these days, so it will be interesting to see how the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection fares. Will the brand power be enough to entice land-lovers to take to water?

Where is luxury going next? In a nutshell, everywhere. Today, luxury travelers can be found anywhere from second-tier cities to remote destinations in developing countries. And as travelers increasingly flock to novel places, expect hospitality companies to bookmark them as well.

Rwanda is setting itself up as Africa's new big luxury tourism destination. And while mountain gorillas are the country's main attraction, new luxury lodges will help open up other regions of this small, yet highly diverse country.