The Tampa Bay Business Journal, reporting on a study done by BMO Private Bank, show high-net worth Floridians expect to spend a fair amount of money each year on leisure travel – an average of over $20,000 on vacations in 2015.
*The study considers high-net worth individuals as those with more than $1 million in investible assets.
And while we don’t have researched studies to specifically tell us how our interior design clients are spending their leisure time, we can certainly attest to the fact that our clients do spend fair amounts of their income on high end travel.
We find that they are more than willing to put money toward luxury vacations, especially those that are ‘experience-oriented’ and memorable. These ‘once in a lifetime’ travel opportunities are important and are viewed as an ‘investment.’ It’s true too that many vacations these days are also linked to business travel or include business opportunities.
Other findings from the BMO Private Bank research show:
72 percent of those surveyed, prefer to stay in a four-star hotel, and another 19 percent favor a five-star hotel.
61 percent of wealthy Floridians plans five trips or more this year, compared to the national average of six trips per year.
The average expense per trip for wealthy Floridians is about $12,606, compared to the national average of $2,902.
Nearly one-quarter of wealthy Floridians — 23 percent — choose to fly business class or first class, while three-quarters choose to fly economy.
Florida’s wealthy residents tend to prefer to travel in the fall (77 percent), followed by summer (70 percent). Spring travel came in third, at 68 percent.
More than nine in 10 — 91 percent — of the state’s affluent prefer to travel within the United States, while 42 percent said they travel to Europe.