World's super-wealthy spend their riches on luxury travel adventures

By AGENCIES

BESPOKE, lavish, one-of-a-kind trips are catnip for growing number of millionaires, says report by Boston Consulting Group

Their wardrobes are packed with haute couture and designer accessories but for the world's super-rich shopping is no longer enough: lavish one-of-a-kind travel adventures are the latest status symbol.

Helicopter skiing in Alaska or a getaway to luxury goods group LVMH's exclusive hideaway in the Maldives are the current trends for the growing number of millionaires, according to a report.

It predicts that, despite the eurozone crisis, spending on luxury goods will hit $1.5tn (£975bn) this year as the wealthy look for novel ways to spend their riches.

The study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) identifies a shift from "owning a luxury to experiencing a luxury" with bespoke treats now accounting for more than half of the $1.4tn spent on luxury goods and services last year.

Luxury sales have boomed in the last two years as the industry recovered from the hiatus caused by 2008 global financial crisis, which provoked a sharp fall in conspicuous consumption.

The sector has also been buoyed by the growing number of millionaire shoppers in markets such as China and Brazil, who are picking up the slack as consumers in traditionally important luxury markets such as western Europe, Japan and the US continue to spend more cautiously.

"The gap in income inequality is growing, which is unfortunate, but there are more and more millionaires every year," said Jean-Marc Bellaiche, a BCG senior partner who heads the firm's luxury practice.

Bellaiche said sales of luxury experiences grew 50% faster than demand for physical goods last year. The trend is explained, in part, by demographics – as the consumers who drove the luxury boom in the 1990s start to retire, he said.

"They do not want to own new things, so are the primary customers for experiential luxury offerings," he said. Their options are not limited to exclusive safaris and spas, they can book themselves in for a five-star hospital stay where they will be waited on by a butler and the en suite facilities include a marble bath.

The attitude to luxury is also apparent among their children who, the report says, now want more than the latest designer fashions. "Members of Generation Y tend to define themselves more by what they've done and experienced than by what they own," said Bellaiche.