The Rise of the Travel Designer: New The Gatekeepers of Luxury Travel.

Written By Claire Gibson

The luxury landscape is undergoing one of the biggest shifts in recent years with the need for authenticity in travel marketing thanks to the meteoric rise with AI. In response to this consumer quest for trust and authentic experiences, the new gatekeeper to high-net-worth clients is the Travel Designer.

The independent Travel Designer is not merely a booking agent. They are a trusted curator, a personal travel strategist, and a visual storyteller. 


These independent specialists are reshaping how luxury is sold, how trips are curated, and how Travel Suppliers must position themselves to win business in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Dhigali Maldives

Why Travel Designers Hold the Power

Today’s travellers crave something profoundly different from the AI-slop and digitally-saturated world they are part of. They are looking for:

  • Trust

  • Authenticity

  • Human expertise

  • Experiences rooted in meaning and place

In response, the Travel Designer’s role has also expanded, they are:

  • Curators of taste

  • Personal travel strategists

  • Creative directors of the travel experience

  • Visual storytellers who sell through inspiration

Their growth has been explosive - and measurable.

Minaret Station, New Zealand


A Restructured Luxury Travel Market

 One of the most revealing signals of industry transformation is happening in the US with Virtuoso reporting a 45% increase in Independent Contractors (ICs) over just three years. This surge signals a fundamental change in how luxury travel is sold.


US Travel Designer Market Snapshot

  • Gross bookings: +28% in 2023

  • Total gross booking value: $109.7B

  • Leisure travel share: 65% of all sales

  • Independent contractor growth: +45% in three years

This growing army of ICs is the primary conduit to the industry’s most profitable travellers.



Who They Influence: The Most Valuable Travellers in the Market

In the ABTA 2024-25 Holiday Habits Report, it was cited that Travel Designers are trusted by the world's most valuable luxury travellers:

  • 73% of their clients are over 40, a segment that drives the majority of premium travel spend.

  • 55% of families with young children now use travel designers.

  • 48% of 18–24-year-olds say they prefer an expert to help them plan trips. 

  • 84% of luxury travellers say a trusted travel designer is more valuable than unlimited online research.

Round Hill Hotel and Villas



Travel Designers: The New Visual Creators

To understand how to engage Travel Designers, we must understand how they sell. They need visually compelling content, to match the needs of their luxury clients, at their fingertips. Travel Designers help share hotels' stories, and close high-value bookings, using:

  • Scroll-worthy social content, favouring Reels

  • Pinterest mood boards

  • Immersive itinerary-building apps

  • Image-driven proposals

  • Direct messaging tools

 

For this generation of sellers, a hotel's library of photos and videos are not passively consumed marketing materials; they are the essential raw ingredients for their own sales success. They are the foundational elements Travel Designers use to craft the stories that inspire and convert their clients.   

Finolhu Maldives

Why Visual-First Selling Matters

Modern traveller behaviour makes this clear:

85%+ of Gen Z and Millennial travellers have booked a trip based on video content.

Travel purchases are increasingly driven by visual excitement - and Travel Designers know how to capture it. But this introduces a new challenge for hotels. When a client gets excited about a property, the Travel Designer must respond instantly. They cannot wait days for access to assets or approvals. They cannot navigate outdated portals, expired file-sharing links or zip files.

Every delay is a reason to sell a competitor instead.




The Gatekeepers Are Here. Let PIXI Help You Connect With Them.

2026 will continue to see the rise of the Travel Designer; the gatekeeper of human trust. As their influence grows, hotels that equip them with powerful, frictionless, visually driven tools will capture market share and loyalty. PIXI gives your hotel everything it needs to thrive in this new era:

Organise, tag, and optimise thousands of assets in minutes using PIXI's AI

  • Make your content discoverable globally, 24/7 to thousands of elite, global Travel Designers

  • Turn content into measurable sales

  • Save time and reduce admin costs

  • Maintain brand consistency and compliance

You create unforgettable experiences - PIXI makes sure the world sees them.

Discover how PIXI transforms content chaos into a storytelling and sales advantage - saving hours, protecting brand integrity, and driving visibility - by booking a demo with our team today.

Claire Gibson
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2026 Travel Marketing Trends