Luxury is changing its language. It’s no longer measured in square footage and rare marble, but in what those places let you live. The data from 2026 tell the story of an industry rewriting its own rules, starting from a paradox worth unpacking: while traditional luxury goods slow down, hospitality is on the rise.
Bain’s Tectonic Shift – and Luxury’s New Definition
Bain & Company, together with Altagamma, doesn’t mince words: they call it a “tectonic shift” – a seismic move away from physical goods and toward experiences. Bain-Altagamma Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study, presented in Milan on November 20, 2025 with projections for 2026, shows hospitality, cruises, and fine dining absorbing a growing share of spending that once went to leather goods and accessories. Hospitality, fine dining, wellness, and travel are the categories driving all of the market’s net growth since 2023. This is structural, not seasonal: consumer preference for experiences is set to grow 1.5 times faster than for tangible goods in 2026.
In its follow-up report this year, Bain confirms the same trajectory – a cultural shift from ownership to lived experience. The numbers back it up: bookings for immersive experiences in dining, leisure, and entertainment rose 30% year-on-year, fueled by personalized travel and a slow-travel mindset increasingly rooted in local culture. Trips to lesser-known destinations grew 20% – a phenomenon Bain has dubbed “Elsewhereism”, the search for places off the beaten, overcrowded path.
There’s also a generational chapter that matters directly to anyone designing hospitality experiences: nearly half of Gen Z say their preferences are shaped by their parents – a sign of the rise in multigenerational travel and a demand that increasingly spans age groups.
Gourmet dining, meanwhile, is having a moment across Asia, the Middle East, and resort hubs worldwide, driven by younger travelers hungry for experience; while new frontiers – outdoor pursuits, safaris, elite sports – are redefining contemporary luxury around the exclusivity of the moment itself.
For anyone running a hotel, resort, or high-end restaurant: the playing field has shifted, and the experience now has to hold up to the scrutiny of an increasingly informed guest.
From Ownership to Intrinsic Value: The Quality Shift
A second, less-discussed but equally decisive shift emerges from the 12th edition of the True-Luxury Global Consumer Insight – BCG’s annual study with Altagamma, covering 26 product categories across seven sectors, hospitality included, presented in Milan on July 7, 2026. Luxury, after a period of reset, is growing again – but on sturdier, healthier ground.
For years, luxury was measured in extrinsic values: status, social recognition, the desire to be seen. Today the study registers a reversal toward intrinsic values – self-reward, time, health, longevity. The new currency of luxury, the researchers write, is exactly that: time and wellbeing. The product itself still matters – design, craftsmanship, and timelessness never go out of style – but what justifies its value is no longer the logo. It’s the substance behind it: the artisan’s hand, human expertise, the uniqueness of every object, every dish, every stay.
The same study delivers a number every high-end hotelier and restaurateur should keep in mind before raising a price list: price rejection, when it isn’t perceived as justified.
Being expensive is no longer enough to be desirable. The price has to be backed by real, tangible value – materials, supply chain, craftsmanship, and yes, verifiable sustainability too.
Why Luxury’s Leadership Is Betting on Travel – and Why It Pays Off
According to Deloitte’s Global Powers of Luxury 2026 report, more than one in three luxury executives – 36.2% – name travel as the segment with the highest growth potential in the years ahead. It’s not an outlier: 28.6% of executives point to customer experience and loyalty as the strongest growth opportunity, built on data, bespoke curated experiences, and emotional connection with the guest.
Geographically, Deloitte identifies China (19.3%), Japan (19.0%), the Middle East (17.9%), and India (11.9%) as 2026’s most influential growth engines – a useful map for anyone eyeing an expanding international clientele, no longer concentrated in traditional Western markets alone.
Which brings us to the second shift – perhaps the most interesting one for anyone working on the ecological transition of hospitality: sustainability is moving from a matter of legal compliance to an engine of innovation. Deloitte finds that a quarter of executives (25.7%) now rank R&D and innovation programs as their top sustainability priority – not damage limitation, but real investment in new materials, supply-chain traceability, and lifecycle management.
It’s no surprise, then, that among the most transformative forces shaping the industry’s future, executives rank innovation in materials and production (22.6%) right behind artificial intelligence (31.7%).
But why does investing in sustainability generate a measurable return today, rather than just avoiding reputational cost?
Another Deloitte data point explains it well, drawn from A Roadmap for Sustainable Hospitality: 68% of respondents to Deloitte’s Global State of the Consumer Survey describe climate change as an emergency, and according to Booking.com, 53% of travelers worldwide now say they’re more determined to travel sustainably than they were a year ago. In ROI terms: the demand that rewards sustainability is no longer a niche to capture – it’s already the majority of the market, and it’s moving in that direction.
This is exactly the territory where the excellence we cover at Vegan Suite operates: from materials derived from rice-supply-chain waste, to bio-architecture, to organic cosmetics, to verifiable certification systems.
A different – and more elegant – way of building value.
What Conscious Travelers Are Asking For Today
Virtuoso‘s data – based on responses from over 2,400 travel advisors across more than 50 countries – is telling. Nearly half of advisors (45%) report that their clients are changing travel plans because of climate change: 76% of those are increasingly choosing the off-peak season, 75% prefer milder climates.
There’s also a signal that speaks directly to Vegan Suite’s F&B pillar: for the first time in the Luxe Report’s history, farm-to-table has entered the top 5 attributes defining sustainable tourism for 2026. Luxury travelers no longer just want to know what they’re eating, but where it comes from – a shift that opens real space for chefs, producers, and hotels that have built short, transparent supply chains.
Zicasso, which analyzed over 100,000 travel requests for 2026, confirms the same direction from the booking side: luxury travelers are increasingly seeking authenticity and a connection to place, moving away from overexposed destinations toward less predictable experiences.
The Confidence Signal That Matters Most
We’ll close with the number that matters most to anyone investing in this transition today: according to the Altagamma Consensus, 40% of True-Luxury consumers expect to spend more on experiences – hospitality, dining, art, travel – a category growing 4%.
The message for anyone working in the industry is simple: sustainability is no longer just a values-driven choice, it’s the lever on which industry leaders are building the next decade of growth. Anyone still treating it as a line item in a sustainability report, rather than part of their strategic positioning, risks overlooking a market that’s taking shape right now.
Sources
- Bain & Company e Altagamma, Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study (presentato il 20 novembre 2025, con proiezioni per il 2026) — bain.com
- Bain & Company, “Global luxury stabilizes amid compounding disruptions as brands race to amplify meaning and rebuild relevance” (2026) — bain.com
- BCG e Altagamma, True-Luxury Global Consumer Insight 2026, 12ª edizione (Milano, 7 luglio 2026) — ripreso da FashionNetwork Italia
- Deloitte, Global Powers of Luxury 2026
- Deloitte, “A Roadmap for Sustainable Hospitality” (Katrina Goulden, Senior Manager, Sustainability Strategy & Transformation)
- Altagamma, Consensus 2026 (documento ufficiale)
- Virtuoso, Luxe Report 2026
- Zicasso, 2026 Luxury Travel Trends Report
Photos sourced from Pexels.
