It’s the end of pampering for luxury travel: Travel Weekly Asia

Luxury, as a concept, is being rewritten – and it’s no longer about sheer indulgence and over-the-top spending.

At the recent WiT Singapore 2025, hoteliers and investors at the Luxury Travel: From Bling to Meaning panel agreed that today’s travellers have a new aspiration. It’s no longer about excess, but authenticity, and Gen Z’s search for authentic escape is reshaping luxury travel.

Curated discomfort

Leah Lee, CEO of The Week& Resort, and The Connoisseur Hotel, South Korea, who caters to the “young VIPs of Korea”, believes the new luxury her clients hunt for, is “lifestyle rarity”.

“I have two kids under eight years old, and when you pay US$3,000 a night but have to look over your shoulder and go ‘don’t shout, don’t run!’ – I don’t feel luxury at all.

“People used to seek materialistic wants. Now, they want time, nature, and peace.”

Lee calls this: curated discomfort.

Instead of padding around in hotel slippers or watching experiences unfold from afar, the idea is to curate experiences that can generate more memories, reconnecting to reality such as experiencing nature with your feet, because “you never actually get that experience in your own life”.

The art of being “off”

In fact, “true luxury will invert,” observed Chris Hemmeter, managing director, Thayer Ventures.

“This next era will be defined by deliberate digital absence, as true luxury travellers search for the ‘art of being off’.”

These travellers are what Philippe Kjellgren, founder of PK’s List, calls the fifth and highest stage of luxury; a market that grows even when others pull back, and who value convenience. In a BCG Analysis of Altrata’s Wealth-X database across 70 economies, 100% of such clients own yachts and jets, and 36% have cars, as of June 2025.

“You no longer need to brag or show where you are. You have found a place where you belong.”

The Gen Z influence

This trend becomes particularly pronounced with the rise of Gen Z, set to become the world’s largest population group in the next 20 years. In Asia Pacific, Gen Z and millennial tourists will make up half of all travellers by 2025, according to Collinson, which operates the Priority Pass airport lounges.

“These are the people who value social impact. They are investing in experiences, for eco sustainability into regenerative experiences,” said Kamonwan Wipulakorn, managing director, Bound and Beyond Public Company Limited.

To that end, the hotel investor looks towards luxury businesses such as Ferrari, LVMH for “signals and narratives” as an indication of a sign of the times.

Fellow hotel investor Kjellgren does the same. Having visited more than 2,000 hotels across over 140 countries, he also cited LVMH, pointing out how the French luxury goods conglomerate is now going into the lower end lifestyle luxury sector.

As Gen Z and millennials enter the workforce, total income is set to hike fivefold to US$33 trillion by 2030, according to Bank of America data. “And they are not spending on watches, cars or fashion, but experiences,” says Kjellgren.