Luxury travel trends at WTM London 2026 point from excess to access

World Travel Market brought the travel industry to ExCeL London from 3 to 5 November. For the high-end traveller, the luxury travel trends 2026 on show were consistent across stands and stages: privacy, rare experiences, new destinations and trips tailored to each guest’s mix of preferences. Luxury also reached further into cruising and entertainment, and AI ran through the opening day’s programme.

VIP Today was at ExCeL for the show. Read from a marketing desk, four of those trends change how luxury clients are found and won.

Key takeaways

• Access outranks excess. Luxury is measured more by what guests can reach than by what they accumulate.
• Travellers save and splurge in one trip. 56% of respondents to the WTM Global Travel Report 2026 want to mix the two.
• Boutique destinations sell scale as value. Anguilla is keeping most new projects between 60 and 100 rooms.
• AI assistants decide what gets found. Tourism Economics calls discoverability by AI an immediate priority.

What we saw on the show floor

Three things stood out on the floor.

Visit Egypt, the event’s main sponsor, built its stand around pieces of ancient Egyptian history. It was the clearest case at WTM of a destination selling heritage that no competitor can offer, which is the access argument in its plainest form.

The exhibitor list carried a large number of companies, and a notable share were hotel groups focused on the luxury segment. At a trade show built on volume, the high end held a visible place.

The third was less expected. Several English football clubs came to present their VIP experiences. Match-day hospitality is access sold as a product: a seat and a moment that cannot be bought at scale. The clubs are now taking that product to the travel trade.

Luxury is now measured by access

The luxury traveller of the next decade will judge a trip less by its services, space or display and more by the access it opens: to protected places, expert knowledge, living culture and close human contact. Chase Gray of Skift Advisory sums up the shift as “Access, not Excess”.

Status has not gone anywhere. Prestige-driven travellers still want to be recognised, and to see and be seen. What has moved is the source of distinction. Amenities count for less. A place at a table, in a community or at a moment that cannot be sold at scale counts for more.

The thesis rests on three motivations that overlap rather than compete:

• Prestige. Entry to scenes, places and circles that confer recognition.
• Enrichment. Travel built around learning, culture, wellbeing and health.
• Connection. Time with family and friends, and real contact with the people of the destination.

The research presented at the show points the same way. Sean Morgan, head of research at Oxford Economics, which worked on the WTM Global Travel Report, said consumers are “increasingly prioritizing memories over materialistic goods”.

Hotels, destinations and operators now have to decide what counts as valuable within luxury. Standard extras are losing ground to access that cannot be copied: an expert, a table, a stretch of coast before the crowds arrive.

Why access is harder to market

A suite photographs well. So does a pool. A private hour with a curator, a visit before opening time or a table that cannot be booked online does not fit in an image gallery. When access becomes the proposition, marketing has to prove it with facts: what the guest gets into, with whom, how often, and why a competitor cannot offer the same.

It also has to know which motivation weighs most with its clients. A guest buying recognition needs a different message, in a different channel, from one buying a week with the family.

Travellers save and splurge in the same trip

According to the WTM Global Travel Report 2026, produced with Tourism Economics, 56% of respondents are interested in saving on some parts of a trip and splurging on others. In 2026 one in six travellers chose their last international destination for value for money, against roughly one in eleven in 2025. The share choosing a destination for luxury held at 12%.

Tourism Economics reads this as a polarity in travel budgets and points to tiered products: clear value at entry level, with premium upgrades above it.

For marketers, it redraws the buyer persona. Someone who fails a traditional luxury filter can still be a valuable selective buyer. Two decisions change as a result.

• Targeting. An audience built on income alone misses the traveller who flies economy and then books the chef’s table.
• The offer. The value-seeker is won through the one element they will pay for. A campaign for an upgrade, a single experience or an extra night speaks to them better than a generic hotel ad.

Anguilla grows without crowds

Every destination wants more visitors with more to spend. What matters is the quality of those visitors and what they spend once they arrive. The usual mistake is to make up for quality with volume. On paper, the logic is obvious. Execution is harder.

Anguilla brought a concrete answer to WTM. Jameel Rochester, the island’s Director of Tourism, told TTG that Anguilla does not intend to become a mass market. He described a base of small and mid-sized properties, with most projects between 60 and 100 rooms. He also set out a push into the yachting market ahead of Port Nimara, the island’s first superyacht marina, whose first phase is due in 2027.

For a destination like this, scale is a filter. It cannot market itself like a place that wants volume. Each campaign has to draw the visitor who fits and quietly discourage the one who does not. Anguilla is betting it can grow revenue and investment and keep its calm. The marina’s first seasons will test that.

Saudi Arabia leans on global hotel brands

Saudi Arabia took the opposite route. According to the Saudi Tourism Authority, as reported by TTR Weekly, the country came to WTM with 37 tourism partners and highlighted AMAALA, where seven resorts, among them Four Seasons, Six Senses, Rosewood and Nammos properties, have welcomed guests since June.

The two cases show two ways to earn the same traveller’s trust. A small destination sells its scarcity. A new one borrows the reassurance of operators the guest already knows.

Cruise lines borrow the language of luxury hotels

Century Cruises used the opening day to present its expansion in Europe and North Africa: a Rhine–Danube ship introduced in 2026, another due in 2027 and Nile cruises planned for 2028. David Fredericks of Century Cruises compared the company’s aspirational positioning with Mandarin Oriental and Shangri-La. The programme also featured VidantaWorld’s BON, billed as “The World’s First Luxury Theme Park”.

A comparison with a hotel group is a claim, and a claim needs support. For a luxury promise to hold across a week on a river, marketing has to come down to what justifies it: ship size, number of guests, who runs the kitchen, which events guests can attend. Without those facts, luxury is only a label.

AI assistants now decide what gets found

AI ran through the opening day. Garry Wilson of easyJet holidays argued for automating simple queries so staff can focus on complex cases, and for publishing content that AI search systems can attribute to the company. Ani Attamian stressed the need for correct, connected and clear data. Natalia Talkowska defended emotion, human encounters and time to disconnect.

The WTM report puts numbers on it. More than a third of respondents (36%) say they would trust AI to complete a travel booking, 53% would consider it for recommendations and 58% for searching and comparing prices. Tourism Economics concludes that being discoverable by AI assistants is an immediate priority for destinations and suppliers.

In luxury the two ideas belong together. Automation earns its place when it frees staff for what a high-value guest expects from a person. Discoverability depends on what Attamian described: the same accurate facts on the brand’s website, its distribution listings and the media the models read.

An access-led offer runs an extra risk here. If no source the model reads describes the private visit or the off-menu dinner, the assistant will summarise the property as one more five-star hotel. That gap is where most of the AEO and GEO work for a luxury travel brand now sits.

What it means for luxury brands

WTM 2026 offered no single definition of luxury. It left one demand on hotels, destinations and operators: be specific about what makes the offer exceptional, and for whom. The difference between an expensive service and a valuable experience runs through every trend in this piece. It now has to be legible wherever travellers look, including in the answer an AI assistant gives.

FAQs

What were the luxury travel trends 2026 at WTM London?

Four stood out: luxury measured by access rather than excess, travellers who save and splurge within one trip, boutique destinations that sell scale as value, and AI assistants as a new gatekeeper of discovery. Cruising and entertainment also took the luxury label beyond hotels.

Who was the main sponsor of WTM London 2026?

Visit Egypt was the main sponsor of WTM London 2026, held at ExCeL London from 3 to 5 November. Its stand was built around pieces of ancient Egyptian history.

What does “Access, not Excess” mean in luxury travel?

It describes a shift from accumulating services and space towards access to what few people can reach: protected places, experts, living culture and close human contact. Chase Gray of Skift Advisory uses the phrase for this change.

Are travellers mixing luxury and budget in 2026?

Yes. According to the WTM Global Travel Report 2026, produced with Tourism Economics, 56% of respondents are interested in saving on some parts of a trip and splurging on others. The share choosing a destination for luxury held at 12%.

Is AI changing how luxury travel is found?

WTM did not measure an effect specific to luxury. Its report found that 36% of travellers would trust AI to complete a booking, and Tourism Economics names discoverability by AI assistants as an immediate priority for destinations and suppliers.

How can a luxury hotel appear in ChatGPT and other AI assistants?

Start with the questions a guest would ask, and decide in advance which of them the hotel should appear in. Run those queries several times in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, because answers vary between runs, and read the pattern rather than a single answer. Then close the gaps with consistent, specific facts on the hotel’s site, its listings and the media the models cite.