Resume af teksten:
Den populære serie “White Lotus” har skabt stor interesse i luksusrejsemål, hvilket har medført en stigning i booking af hotellerne, hvor serien er optaget. Seriens luksuriøse skildringer har tiltrukket både de aspirerende og de ultra-rige rejsende, hvilket har skabt en ny kategori af ‘masstige’ hoteller, der appellerer til begge grupper. Med højere efterspørgsel på luksusdestinationer, er der opstået bekymringer om overturisme i byer som Barcelona, Dubrovnik og Phuket, hvor lokale oplever stigende leveomkostninger og pres på infrastrukturen. Højnet udgifter til rejser afspejler en stigende interesse for unikke og tilpassede oplevelser, især indenfor sundhed og velvære. Thailand er eksempelvis blevet en populær destination for wellness-turisme med avancerede, personaliserede tilbud. Den stigende påvirkning af serier som “White Lotus” giver også anledning til spekulationer og bekymringer om fremtidige rejsemål, med Frankrig som næste mulige destination for serien.
Fra Julius Bär:
Since its first season launched in 2021, viewers across the globe have thirstily drunk in the White Lotus’s cocktail of luxury destinations, unorthodox family dynamics, and scandalous intrigue that has shaken up the image of holidaying like the one per cent.
From lockdown to luxury
With many viewers still under pandemic lockdown restrictions when the first series debuted, the show represented an illusory escape from not just everyday reality, but from the limits of many people’s budgets. As pandemic restrictions eventually waned, and with savings accumulated during lockdown, many decided it was their time to travel like the 1 per cent depicted in the show.
This led to unprecedented interest in the very real destinations and hotels the show depicts. A Four Seasons hotel in Taormina, Sicily, and the location of the second season, reported it was fully booked for six months when it reopened after filming, and global interest in Thailand as a destination soared when it was announced as the location for the third season. But, with the number of hotel rooms and local tolerance of swarms of tourists both finite, at what point does luxury travel lose its lustre and how do HNWIs change their habits as a result?
How HNWIs travel
As shown in this year’s Lifestyle Survey, HNWIs are travelling a significant amount for leisure purposes, with around half of respondents across all regions saying they liked to travel as much as possible and discover other cultures. In both Asia Pacific and Europe, more than 50 per cent are taking more leisure flights than in the previous year, and across all regions surveyed only 10 per cent or less said they are taking fewer leisure flights than before.
Whether these are to destinations depicted in the blockbuster HBO series we cannot know, but significant White Lotus viewership comes from many countries with the keenest travellers, including Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Spending remains strong across the board, though, in travel and hospitality as shown in our Lifestyle Survey results.
And with hotel spending increasing significantly across most regions surveyed in the last year, it is likely the budgets for holidaying like HNWIs will continue to grow.
From exclusive resorts to ‘mass-prestige’ hotels
The purposefully aspirational level of luxury portrayed in the White Lotus, intentionally taking viewers behind the manned doors of the gilded palazzos and pagodas that have traditionally been stylish sanctuaries for the rich and famous, comes with a catch. Though everyone may now want to experience these locations for themselves, not everyone can – the essential characteristic of exclusivity. Yet as cultural phenomena, like the White Lotus, and social media hype drive greater homogenisation in people’s dream destinations, true luxury is increasingly giving way to mass prestige (‘masstige’) hotels and resorts and rising over-tourism in cities and destinations that tap into the zeitgeist.
Who is driving the global luxury growth
As noted by this year’s Global Wealth & Lifestyle Report, experiences form an ever-growing portion of discretionary spending for HNWIs. More widely, research conducted by luxury travel company Virtuoso in the late 2010s already suggested that the proliferation of ‘masstige’ (prestige for the masses) luxury travel demand was being driven by digital-first millennials and Generation X, a growing affluent female market, and a rapidly growing Chinese middle class, all ready to spend on the luxury travel destinations and services more commonly associated with the top few per cent of travellers.
More recently in 2024, McKinsey found that demand for luxury tourism and hospitality was expected to grow faster than for any other industry segment. Despite the economic turbulence and uncertainty of recent years, it appears people are more willing than ever to indulge their expensive wanderlust, but that does not mean they all have the same demands of their destinations.
Aspiring vs. ultra-wealthy travellers
McKinsey also identified aspiring luxury travellers as more willing to splurge on special occasions, while seeking the validation of recognisable premium brands and paying close attention to value for money and loyalty benefits.
However, the true 0.1 per cent of travellers, those with more than USD 30 million in assets, increasingly sought remote, private destinations with highly tailored service and truly unique experiences.
A new standard of luxury
This yearning for seclusion and serenity by the truly wealthy is a marked change from merely seeking out the most luxurious hotel or resort and ties in with the growing importance of health and wellness in the lives of HNWIs. To illustrate, across all regions, somewhere between 87 and 100 per cent of those asked in our survey are taking some measures to increase their longevity. These measures range from lifestyle changes such as regular exercise and a good diet to more extreme measures, such as gene therapy and cryogenic.
Destinations have cottoned onto these changing requirements and smartly adapted accordingly. With the White Lotus having prompted an extraordinary level of interest in Thailand as a destination, the country has played on its reputation as a go-to for health and fitness retreats and is the fastest growing wellness market globally, with wellness tourism generating 22.8 billion USD in 2024.
But wellness doesn’t simply mean having a spa – HNW travellers expect far more on offer. William Heinecke, the owner of Anantara hotels, who have 11 properties across Thailand, notes that “we are witnessing a seismic shift, where the focus is no longer just on pampering but science-backed, hyper-tailored regimes. We’re talking personalised supplements, predictive analytics, and AI-powered programmes.”
Additionally, McKinsey research notes that luxury travellers also want to learn about the health and wellness practices that are specific to the places they’re visiting, whether it’s a Mediterranean diet in Italy or Ayurvedic medicine in India, underlying the importance of an authentic experience, not just the best that money can buy.
For more on the longevity sector in general and how it relates to megatrends, explore our Next Generation research here.
The downside of desire: over-tourism
The boom in high-end, zeitgeist-driven travel is not necessarily a good thing. Many destinations that have been caught in the cultural crosshairs, such as Barcelona, Dubrovnik, Lisbon, and Venice, are suffering badly from ‘over-tourism’. Visitors find themselves swamped by similar experience hunters, locals reportedly may find themselves priced out of their own cities, and infrastructure buckles under the weight of excessive demand.
Even Thailand has seen the negative side of the White Lotus effect. Not only are prices rising in the capital Bangkok – the city saw the steepest climb, along with Tokyo, in our rankings this year, up 6 places to 11 th – but popular holiday city Phuket was voted the world’s most over-touristed city in 2025, with quality of life for residents decreasing due to soaring rents, water shortages, and waste build up.
What HNWIs want from travel
As noted by this year’s Global Wealth & Lifestyle Report, in travel, the picture is complex. Pricing dynamics for business class flights are changing as leisure travellers seek a premium holiday experience from beginning to end. And while HNWIs are increasing the amount they spend on high-end hospitality – both because prices are predominantly rising for these services and they are using them more – many aspirational travellers are also entering the luxury travel space, occupying destinations traditionally reserved for a more elite demographic. This in turn is driving the so-called ‘masstige’ hospitality sector, often inspired by cultural phenomena like the White Lotus, while forcing true HNWIs, who desire more secluded, bespoke destinations, to pay ever higher price tags for their preferred escapes.
The next White Lotus destination: blessing or curse?
Like other years, the buzz around which destination will be chosen next has reached fever pitch – with news reports now claiming that France will be the home of White Lotus’s fourth season.
Whether being chosen for the show is a blessing or a curse is yet to be truly understood. And given the show’s influence on aspirational travellers’ holiday plans, the wealthiest globetrotters the show originally set out to depict may willingly pay any price not to be seen anywhere close by.
Hurtige nyheder er stadig i beta-fasen, og fejl kan derfor forekomme.
