Luxury travel buzzwords like authentic, local, curate, and, of course, experience may be overused, but they have become buzzwords because of their phenomenal staying power. While some trends fade with time, some just seem to resound with customers from one year into the next. Here?s how a group of luxury travel professionals and other experts see the trends shaping up at the high end of the market for the rest of this year and into the next.

1. Doubling down on local

?Travelers want to be with locals,? said Jack Ezon, president of Ovation Vacations in New York. ?They want to be immersed in a destination. Instead of guides who know a lot of facts, they want insiders who can really give them the lowdown. Or they want a nightlife host who can take them to the coolest bars and nightspots and tell the story from their own perspective.? At The Nines Hotel in Portland, OR, director of sales and marketing Laura Van Daal said, ?Everyone in the hotel is a concierge and a local expert. They are trained to listen to the specifics of what a guest likes or is looking for, because everyone wants a different experience. We have contacts all over the city, so we can get to visit the rare books department of Powell?s Books, or we can get people into the Nike or Adidas employee store where they can get great discounts.?
Milton Pedraza, CEO of The Luxury Institute, said, ?It?s not just about getting a table at the best restaurant, but it might be getting the right table. There?s a popular r...