Virtuoso’s signature gathering Virtuoso Travel Week continues to grow, with more changes on the cards as the event heads into 2025 including an appointment increase of 44%.

A recent visit to Western Australia’s Kimberley region has had a profound impact on the President of Seabourn, Natalya Leahy. Speaking with LATTE at Virtuoso Travel Week earlier this month, Leahy said she was mesmerised by the landscapes and Indigenous culture which has left a permanent imprint on her soul.

Virtuoso will consider adding new travel agency members, heighten its travel advisor training programs and expand its home-grown and developed Regional Preferred Partner Program – now rolled out globally – as the luxury travel market continues to expand.

A panel of Virtuoso agency owners and senior executives openly discussed several travel trends and focus areas they are currently witnessing in the luxury travel market with media at Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas last week.

Globus has made a bold play at the intimately sized group touring trend, introducing more than 50 new Small Group Discovery tours, while making many of its legacy core trips available on a trimmed back capacity.

Explora Journeys is set to announce a new luxury boutique for EXPLORA II in the coming days, a substitute to the Rolex shop offered on board sister-ship EXPLORA I, LATTE can reveal. The second ship in the ultra-luxury cruise line’s fleet is slated to commence operation in mid-next month.

AmaWaterways has started pairing its river cruises with ocean voyages, packaged through Australian wholesalers, to offer new ways to explore Europe.

Virtuoso made a number of significant changes to the format of the ‘Fashion Week of travel’ (ie. the annual  Virtuoso Travel Week) in 2024, with perhaps the biggest shake-up being the scrapping of assigned appointments, flagged by LATTE in June.

Virtuoso’s Misty Belles, Global PR, shared insight from its ‘data warehouse’ at Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas last week to help paint a broader picture of the trends and patterns of luxury travellers who book with network agencies.

Virtuosos have been challenged to think “differently” and “more deeply” about Australia’s diversity for their clients putting off a holiday down under by Tourism Australia’s Managing Director, Phillipa Harrison.

Virtuoso’s Chairman and CEO, Matthew Upchurch, offered insight on the global luxury travel network’s overarching strategy and vision at last week’s Virtuoso Travel Week.

Luxury travel network Virtuoso is preparing to launch a new member facing website homepage that streamlines search functionality, a bugbear of the current platform for travel advisors.