A growing corner of the travel industry is built on a simple promise: the removal of other people. Exclusive access, one of the fastest-growing trends in luxury travel, lets wealthy travellers take over entire islands, trains, yachts and conservancies. Its expansion raises a question with a stake for everyone: who gets to experience the world’s most coveted places, and at what cost to the rest of us?
The trend spans an expanding range of experiences. Travellers can book sole-use islands, buy out country-house hotels, secure invitation-only dining, or gain after-hours entry to some of the world’s most sought-after museums, galleries and cultural attractions. What these experiences share is the effective exclusion of the general public from spaces and moments that were previously shared.
The price points underline how far removed this market is from ordinary holidaymaking. Emily Rutter, head of product at ITC, a collection of luxury travel brands, says such experiences can easily reach six figures before the cost of travel itself. Demand, she notes, is surging regardless. ITC’s client, the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, offers Ithaafushi, an exclusive-use island accommodating no more than 24 people, attended by private chefs, masseuses and butlers. Interest, Rutter says, is unprecedentedly high.
In Kenya, the same logic is reshaping the safari market, where whole-property buyouts have become one of the clearest expressions of exclusive access anywhere in travel. On the Borana Conservancy in Laikipia, sole-use houses such as the five-bedroom Arijiju and the solar-powered Lengishu come with a private chef, guide and vehicle, alongside a stake in the rhino conservation the conservancy is known for. In the Maasai Mara, Cottar’s Bush Villa can be taken over entirely, its guests free to drive at night and walk in country the national reserve keeps off limits.
Meanwhile, the conservancies themselves have encouraged this model, and for reasons that reach beyond the clientele. A handful of guests paying premium rates puts less pressure on the land while generating more money for the community leases that underpin the Mara conservancies than a lodge full of standard-paying visitors would. It is one of the few points in the story where the interests of wealthy travellers and local communities visibly align.
Operators describe the market as defined by privacy rather than ostentation. “This isn’t about Googling ‘luxury holiday’ and finding what you want,” says Rutter. “For a lot of these experiences, most people won’t even know they exist as options, they’re just so financially untouchable. So it’s definitely not about the show.” Kathy Boate, a former investment banker and CEO of the advisory Cartology, puts it more bluntly: “This is about the privacy and freedom not to have your trip influenced or compromised by ‘randoms’.” Exclusivity, she adds, comes at a considerable cost, but one many consider worth it.
The market’s reach extends to rail. Belmond, Golden Eagle Luxury Trains and Northern Belle all offer end-to-end charter programmes, and Querida Nel, who oversees private charters at Rovos Rail, has witnessed a steep rise in demand for train buyouts. She cites a group that chartered an all-suite train from Victoria Falls to Cape Town last year for north of £500,000. Nel attributes the shift not to spectacle but to connection: “It’s the luxury of spending quality time with loved ones and having absolutely nothing distract from that.”
Even familiar destinations are being reprivatised. Chris Townson, managing director of river cruise specialist Uniworld, reports a sharp uptick among passengers wanting to see and do things other tourists don’t, from private access to St Mark’s Basilica or the Doge’s Palace in Venice to exclusive entry to Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum. “Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a growing trend for prioritising experiences over possessions,” he says.
The broader context matters. Reports suggest the global luxury travel market is set to nearly double by 2033 to more than £2.2 trillion, even as overtourism becomes an ever-greater scourge on global hotspots. Boate is convinced this is the start of the journey rather than the end. For the vast majority of travellers, the effect is a travel map increasingly divided between those who can buy their way out of the crowds, and everyone else left in them. Whether public access to the world’s shared treasures keeps narrowing may depend on choices that have yet to be made.