Nearly 5,000 industry professionals are currently in Las Vegas for Virtuoso Travel Week 2022. This week, 5 journalists from 5 countries are attending the event and TravelPulse is the only Canadian media trade on site.

On Monday, the trade media were invited to an exclusive press conference in order to learn updates from Virtuoso and also some statistics regarding industry news.

According to a recent survey of agents, 90% of their turnover is from "new business" from all age groups and the cancellation rate is at an all time low at 10%.

"Now you're seeing customers from millennials and even Z booking with travel agents, it's really all generations doing business with agents now, compared to 2019; we're seeing a real change in this level," said David Kolner, VP of Virtuoso.

“We were also able to quantify the value of a customer who books with an agent," says Kolner. "With Virtuoso, a customer who books with a travel agent spent on average 1.7 x more than a customer we say "DIY" (who booked and planned his own trip) did in 2019; so now this gap is even more important."

"We have indeed learned that a DIY client spent even less in 2022 than in 2019 versus the client who does business with an agent who will spend up to 4.5x more. That difference is now impossible to ignore, especially considering that reservations and sales in all segments are at 108% (general) and 173% (hotel)."

In 2019, only 35% of agency clients said they "accept the new normal" while this figure is close to 76% now; people are finally ready to travel.

Among the news announced by Virtuoso, the most surprising was undoubtedly the exclusive partnership with Galactic Travel, aims to make space travel accessible to all travelers, subject to a few days of training in New Mexico

While the costs are astronomical, Kolner said "to offer a new product and see the journey reach new heights, is most exciting."