Virtuoso panel taps into trends and how 2025 is shaping up

As it wrapped up its series of On Tour Events that hit cities across Canada – which included stops in Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax, Montreal and Toronto – Virtuoso took some time to talk trends and business intelligence during a session at Toronto’s Ritz Carlton Hotel yesterday (April 16).

Virtuoso’s General Manager, Canada, Una O’Leary moderated the session which also featured a panel that included Meredith Burbidge, Director, Leisure Client Engagement, Direct Travel; Catherine Davis, Travel Advisor, Zebrano Travel; Susan Lawson, Director of Engagement, Trevello Travel Group; and Karen Marquardt-Wyers, Travel Advisor, TTI Travel.

O’Leary set the scene, noting that in Canada, Virtuoso has 27 member agencies, 1.435 advisors, of which 54% are IC’s, while 46% are full-time employees. And Virtuoso Canada organizes 11 annual events across the country, which O’Leary pointed out, is more than in any of the organizations other regions.

It was a good news session, with O’Leary pointing out that the global travel industry is strong and in 2024, the industry accounted for $11.1 trillion of the total GDP and in the next decade that is expected to grow to $16 trillion or 11.4% of the global economy.

“So, it’s pretty spectacular when you look at the industry as a whole,” O’Leary said.

Looking at global leisure travel spending overall, O’Leary noted that it was up by 125% since 2019, but for Virtuoso, the increase was a staggering 239%.

O’Leary also walked the audience through a range of trends that focused on both destinations and types of travel styles, the importance of sustainability to today’s travellers. She also emphasized that a key trend that Virtuoso is seeing is that people are booking further and further in advance.

As for the panel, they addressed what O’Leary described as the ‘elephant in the room,’ before she asked them how 2025 was shaping up.

TTI Travel’s Karen Marquardt-Wyers said that it started off “really great,” and “really strong” to the point that people were planning very far in advance so that last fall she was planning trips for clients for the spring and summer of 2025.

But right now, Marquardt-Wyers said that “people are really pausing to see what happens with the [Canadian] election, to see what happens with the decision on the tariffs – so, they’re sort of hesitating for a second, but I think as soon as the election happens, people will start making decisions again. That’s what I’m seeing.”

Susan Lawson of Trevello Travel Group observed that it’s interesting because last year the group finished up 25% over the previous year and going into 2025, the company’s goal was to again increase its sales by a further 25%. But, she said Trevello also felt the slowdown, but things have now rebounded and it’s currently at plus 10% over last year.

Lawson noted that the group is seeing clients – not necessarily cancelling, but shifting where they’ve decided to go and making changes.

“Last year, 2024, was my best year ever,” said Catherine Davis of Zebrano. And she continued that she hasn’t seen “a slowdown yet and I know as a company that we’re busier than ever.”

As for how she accounts for this, Davis explained that she thinks it’s because some of her ‘ultra-luxe’ clients are “a little bit more comfortable with uncertainty;” adding that fluctuations in currency may not affect them as it might affect other types of travellers.

“So, that’s what we’re seeing. That’s not to say that things won’t change, but right now I’m not seeing a change right now,” she said, noting that her clients are not as price sensitive or they may choose to go to different places.

Like her colleagues, Meredith Burbidge of Direct Travel said that 2024 was a ‘really good year for us.” And in 2025, the year started very, very strong and while there was a little bit of a plateau, that seems to have waned and “we’re up for this year … we’re trending up.”

Watch for more to come from Virtuoso in upcoming issues of Canadian Travel Press and Travel Courier.