How Premium and Luxury Travelers Are Diverging—and What It Means for Advisors

What’s the Difference? Key Insights from Internova Focus 2026

McCarthy identified four key distinctions between premium and luxury travelers. Here’s what he shared:

Seasonality and Timing

Luxury travelers tend to concentrate during peak travel periods, often aligning trips with ideal conditions or school schedules. Premium travelers, on the other hand, are significantly more flexible and more open to opportunities during shoulder season.

Why it matters: Reaching a luxury client at the right moment is critical. A missed window can mean a missed booking. With premium clients, you have more runway to develop the relationship and explore off-peak options that offer better value.

Price Sensitivity

Premium travelers are more value-conscious and may compare options closely before committing. Luxury travelers are more likely to prioritize exclusivity, access, and curation and are willing to invest accordingly.

Why it matters: How you frame a proposal matters as much as what’s in it. With luxury clients, lead with the experience and the exclusivity. With premium clients, demonstrate the value and why the investment is worth it.

Trip Duration

Interestingly, premium travelers often book longer trips than luxury travelers. In regions like Asia and Africa, premium itineraries can average several extra nights compared to luxury bookings. Luxury travelers tend to prefer shorter, highly curated stays.

Why it matters: Longer itineraries require more logistical planning, more supplier coordination, and more detailed pacing decisions. Recognizing this pattern helps advisors budget their time and set appropriate planning timelines and fees. 

Digital vs. Human Touch

Perhaps the most compelling finding: 77 percent of luxury travelers believe the best experiences cannot be discovered online and require human insight. This isn’t just a flattering statistic; it’s a strategic reminder of why the advisor’s role is irreplaceable.

Why it matters: Luxury clients are not just looking for bookings; they are looking for access, perspective, and trusted expertise. The advisor’s job is not to replicate what the internet can offer. It’s to go beyond it.

Why Personalization Is No Longer Optional

Personalized experiences have become the baseline expectation in luxury travel, not the exception. Clients want itineraries that reflect their interests, travel style, and personal milestones. Whether that means a private villa, an immersive cultural experience, or a wellness-focused itinerary built around a health journey, the bar for “customized” keeps rising.

Delivering at that level takes real time and coordination. Advisors are managing research, supplier communication, logistics, documentation, commission tracking, social media, and client relationships — often across multiple clients and systems simultaneously. The administrative weight is real, and it competes directly with the creative, relationship-driven work that clients actually pay for.

This is exactly where thoughtfully applied technology can make a meaningful difference.

“When a client asks for something unique, it’s about uncovering hidden gems. Whether it’s recommending a private island they’ve never heard of, a destination within a destination, or private villas and tailored experiences, technology and AI can assist but can never replace that personal connection,” explained Stefani Horowitz, the owner and co-founder of Designer Escapes. “I engage deeply with my clients, asking the right questions so I can craft an unforgettable and meaningful experience that will create memories of a lifetime.”

How AI Is Changing the Day-to-Day

AI is no longer a futuristic concept in the travel industry; it’s a practical productivity tool that advisors are using right now. The greatest opportunity isn’t in replacing creativity or client relationships. It’s in eliminating the friction that eats into the time advisors would rather spend on those things.

Here are some of the most impactful ways advisors are putting AI to work:

Itinerary Development

Generating a first-draft itinerary based on destination, trip length, and client preferences can be one of the most time-consuming steps in trip planning. AI tools can produce a solid framework in minutes, allowing advisors to start refining and personalizing instead of starting from a blank page.

Client Communication

Drafting emails, outlining proposals, structuring follow-up messages, and standardizing common touchpoints, like pre-departure reminders or travel insurance explanations, can all be done faster with AI support. Advisors can then add their personal voice and refine tone before sending.

Destination Research

AI helps cut through the noise of traditional search by summarizing destination information and identifying relevant experiences more efficiently. Advisors can then verify specifics through trusted supplier partners and tourism boards, saving time while maintaining accuracy.

Internal Operations

Workflow checklists, client questionnaires, onboarding materials, and service process documentation are all areas where AI can support consistency and scalability. This kind of behind-the-scenes structure directly impacts the quality and reliability of the client experience.

Marketing and Content

Blog outlines, newsletter copy, and social media captions based on destinations or client trends are all areas where AI saves advisors hours each week. Rather than staring at a blank screen, advisors can focus on adding firsthand insights and personal recommendations to a solid draft.

Spotlight: Tern, Built for the Way Advisors Actually Work

One platform gaining significant traction in the advisor community is Tern, an all-in-one tool specifically designed to eliminate what many advisors describe as “invisible work,” which are the administrative tasks that consume hours without ever being visible to clients.

Rather than juggling separate tools for itineraries, CRM, bookings, commissions, and client communication, Tern consolidates everything into a single connected system. The result is less time switching between platforms and more time designing meaningful experiences.

Key features include:

• AI Notetaker: Tern’s Conversational CRM functionality can join client calls, capture preferences and trip details, and automatically attach structured notes to the client profile. Over time, this creates a searchable knowledge base that allows advisors to recall past preferences, important milestones, and personal interests without starting from scratch each time a client reaches out.
• Itinerary Building: Supplier PDFs and email proposals can be converted into structured itineraries within minutes, preserving images, room types, and key details. Advisors can search supplier catalogs, build quotes, and complete bookings without moving between multiple systems.
• Commission and Admin Tools: Commission reconciliation, insurance quoting, and group travel management tools are all built in, reducing the manual work that typically falls through the cracks.
• Chrome Extension: Advisors can capture content directly from supplier websites or destination resources and store it in their content library, making it easier to curate recommendations efficiently.
• Lucia by Tern: A network of travel-trained virtual assistants available on demand for marketing tasks, administrative coordination, or client communications, without the commitment of full-time staffing.

The results speak for themselves. Some advisors using Tern report sales growth of up to 2.5 times compared to the prior year, attributing the increase largely to workflow automation and the platform’s responsiveness to user feedback.

The Human Advantage: What Technology Cannot Replace

Here’s the part no algorithm can replicate: the relationships.

Seventy-seven percent of luxury travelers believe the best experiences cannot be discovered online. That’s not a coincidence; it’s a reflection of how the most memorable travel moments come to life. They exist within professional networks built over years through trusted partnerships with destination management companies, specialized luxury suppliers, and local experts.

“I’ve been intentional about using AI in my business. For me, it’s an assistant—using it in ways that allow me more time to focus on the parts of my job that require a human touch while automating processes that need less attention,” said Aimee Leon, the founder and travel designer behind San Diego-based Avant-Garde Travel.

These relationships give advisors access to experiences that travelers researching independently would never find. Private access to cultural sites outside standard hours. Introductions to local experts who aren’t on any booking platform. Invitation-only experiences tailored around a client’s specific interests. Customized wellness programming that reflects months of conversation.

Specialized DMC partners play a critical role in making these moments possible. Through established connections, advisors gain visibility into trusted providers, preferred guides, and unique opportunities that simply aren’t marketed online. Technology can support organization and efficiency, but relationships enable differentiation.

“On the operational side, I use AI to streamline repetitive processes such as drafting client emails, building and refining itinerary frameworks, and checking final document packages for accuracy. Where I have found it to be especially helpful is in information dissemination,” Leon added. “AI helps me cut through the search engine trap of sorting through thousands of results, by focusing destination research down to tailored recommendations based on my client’s profiles.”

Putting It Into Practice: How to Apply These Insights

Understanding the difference between premium and luxury travelers is only useful if it changes how you work. Here’s how to put these insights into action:

• Segment clients early. Determine whether each client aligns more closely with premium or luxury behaviors. This shapes everything from how you frame a proposal to what timing you recommend.
• Tailor your communication style. Use storytelling and language focused on exclusivity with luxury clients. With premium clients, lead with value, smart planning, and the confidence that they’re making a great investment.
• Use AI to reclaim your time. Automate first-draft itineraries, routine email templates, research summaries, and common client communications so you can spend more time on the work that actually requires you.
• Leverage an integrated platform. Tools like Tern keep client data, itineraries, bookings, and supplier information in one place, reducing the mental overhead of managing multiple disconnected systems.
• Invest in supplier relationships. The experiences clients remember most come from trusted partnerships with DMCs and luxury suppliers. No algorithm can substitute for a personal introduction or a long-standing relationship with a preferred partner.
• Track outcomes and refine. Monitor repeat bookings, referrals, and client feedback to understand what’s working, and use that data to get even sharper at segmenting and serving future clients.

This kind of strategic, systems-driven approach to the advisor role is also at the heart of the Certified Travel Industry Executive (CTIE) designation from The Travel Institute. This credential emphasizes operational effectiveness, client relationship management, and the business intelligence needed to thrive at the highest level of the industry.

The Takeaways

The luxury travel landscape is evolving quickly, and advisors who understand the nuances between premium and luxury clients are already ahead. Here’s what to keep in mind:

• Luxury and premium travelers are not the same. They differ in timing, price sensitivity, trip duration, and the extent to which they value human expertise over digital research.
• Personalization is the expectation, not the bonus. Clients want experiences that feel designed specifically for them, and delivering that takes time, coordination, and strong supplier relationships.
• AI is a productivity tool, not a replacement. The advisors winning right now are using AI to handle repetitive work so they can focus on what only they can do: building trust, uncovering hidden gems, and designing trips that become lifelong memories.
• Platforms like Tern make it possible to operate at scale without sacrificing service quality. Centralized workflows, searchable client history, and automated tools free up time for the creative and relational work that defines luxury travel.
• Supplier relationships remain your most powerful differentiator. The most memorable experiences exist inside professional networks, not on a search results page.
• Seventy-seven percent of luxury travelers believe the best experiences can’t be found online. That’s not a challenge, it’s your greatest competitive advantage.

AI is not replacing the travel advisor. It is strengthening the role by giving advisors more time to do what they do best: design extraordinary travel experiences that clients simply could not create on their own. The advisors who combine market intelligence, trusted supplier partnerships, smart technology, and genuine human connection will define what luxury travel looks like in 2026 and beyond.