Mideast, North Africa Pique Interest of Upscale Travelers

Luxury travelers will head to traditionally popular destinations for their fall and holiday vacations this year, but the Middle East and North Africa are seeing a strong uptick in bookings compared to last year, according to Virtuoso’s latest analysis of U.S. travel agency bookings.

For Virtuoso’s U.S. agencies, Italy and France are the top two sellers, respectively, for travel September through December. South Africa is third most popular, followed, in descending order, by Israel, Germany, Japan, Greece, the U.S., New Zealand and Switzerland.

Looking at year-over-year growth, Turkey is experiencing the largest increase for the coming travel period, with bookings up 310% over last year. That’s followed closely by Egypt (up 264%). Morocco is also attracting growing interest among high-end travelers; its bookings for the period are up 144%, while India’s bookings are up 128%, Virtuoso said.

Other countries attracting strong year-over-year growth in luxury travelers include: the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Israel, Switzerland, Indonesia and Greece. The findings were reported during Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas.