Audley’s Luxury Tailormade Travel Trends 2026 report, compiled in partnership with travel trend forecasting agency Globetrender, claims to detect a “defining shift in luxury travel: a move away from destination-first planning toward the intentional investment of time.”
Among changing travel taste patterns is a rising demand for cruises that offer richer and more comprehensive explorations which take clients beyond the traditional beach, resort or short city stay of a cruise and stay itinerary.
Examples include pairing a cruise around Japan with time exploring the volcanic valleys and hot springs of Hakone, or an Antarctic cruise with a visit to Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina to allow clients to maximise their holiday time.
Audley says it is seeing a 36% increase in the number of travellers requesting a trip with two clear parts such as this.
The operator says an increasing number of travellers see true luxury travel as “having access to something others haven’t experienced and an opportunity to do what was once perceived impossible” – that is fully immersive experiences that surprise by offering something that is truly new or different.
These adventures include having access to private land, pursuing out-of-bounds properties, off-the-map locations and being the first aboard new vehicles and vessels.
Audley gives the example of the remote and preserved Cosmoledo Atoll in the Seychelles (which has seen very little human pressure on its environment over the years), where clients stay in a single eco-camp on an island in a lagoon amid pristine, wadable sand flats.
In other trends, Audley says it is noticing a growing interest in a demand for “adventure” in warm climes and without the need for huge physical endurance.
Destinations on clients’ radars include lesser-visited corners of Indonesia, the Pacific, the Amazon and Africa. Such “soft expeditioning” destinations deliver in the addressing the challenge of time scarcity by providing adventure in shorter durations.
Another example of maximising holiday time, is a shorter cruise itinerary paired with pre-or post-cruise land exploration which makes the most of those annual leave days.
Also, as guest lectures on expedition cruises become the norm, more travellers are looking for experiences that “challenge their perceptions, reward their curiosity and leave them mentally sharper for having taken part” – and cruises are responding with new itineraries that fit this bill.
Examples include clients asking for encounters that stretch their thinking, whether that’s with conservationists in Baja or community leaders in the Pacific.
The exclusivity of the access is key, and the feeling that the learning couldn’t be found anywhere else.
