Wealthy Americans are making this the ‘year of the splurge’

From Madrid to Mauritius, well-to-do Americans this year are spreading their wealth around the world in rising numbers, rubbing elbows at the Ritz and jetting to Japan. Note to CEOs: Make your Swiss resort reservation soon.

Like their less-blessed compatriots, these vacationers are emboldened by an improving economy and a defiant determination to travel despite terrorism, air-security hassles and other impediments. Simply put: They need to get out. But the rich are getting out far more than the rest of us. The evidence is as abundant as Botox jobs in Beverly Hills:

* The industry’s Cruise Lines International Assn. reported 9% growth in the first quarter of 2004 from the same period last year. But at high-end Crystal Cruises, whose cabins typically command about $400 per person per day -- more than twice the fare for many mass-market cruises -- bookings have ballooned nearly five times as fast, said spokeswoman Mimi Weisband.

* “Business is terrific,” said Pamela Lassers, spokeswoman for the North American branch of Abercrombie & Kent, known for its deluxe soft-adventure trips. European bookings, so far up more than 50% from last year, have surpassed those made in early 2001 before the Sept. 11 attacks.

* U.S. luxury hotels, through May, enjoyed bigger gains in occupancies and room rates than any other lodging category, according to Smith Travel Research. The average nightly rate, according to Smith: nearly $232.

* Conde Nast Traveler magazine, catering to readers with median household incomes of nearly $100,000, is having its best year ever. It has logged 931 advertising pages through its August issue, six ahead of 2000, its former record year, said spokesman Jon Paul Buchmeyer.

Conde Nast also did well in 2003, when most of the U.S. travel industry ran aground on a rocky economy and Iraq war jitters. A coterie of creme de la creme vacationers, experts said, never really stopped jet-setting, come war, dropping Dow or terrorist trauma.

“The wealthy are always going to travel,” said Adrienne Forst, director of leisure sales at Protravel International in Beverly Hills, whose clients include investment and Hollywood honchos. “If there’s a problem in one country, they’ll go to another country.”

Several factors are swelling the ranks of top-end tourists: baby boomers hitting their peak earning years, longer life spans and pent-up demand by Americans of relatively modest means who put off ambitious trips after the terrorist attacks.

“There are many people entering the luxury market for the first time,” said Steve Loucks, spokesman for Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates, a nationwide network of travel agencies. “This is the year of the splurge.”

In surveys, Carlson Wagonlit agents said their sales of high-end tours through May were up nearly 70% from the same period last year -- twice the gain for mass-market tours. Luxury cruise sales posted similar gains.

Diana Meinhold, vice president of travel products and services for the Automobile Club of Southern California, estimated that one in five people who booked luxury trips with AAA Travel in the last few months were first-timers. Their attitude, she said, was, “Let’s go, and let’s treat ourselves really well.”

Carl M. Agliozzo, a retired surgical pathologist in La Quinta who owns pleasure boats and travels often, took his first around-the-world cruise this year, spending more than $50,000 for a berth with Holland America. Undeterred by a health history that includes two open-heart surgeries and four heart attacks, he said, “At age 73 I’m doing things ... that I thought of for years and haven’t done.”

Among the high-end trends:

* Family trips. When I spoke with Protravel’s Forst, she had just arranged to send three generations on a private two-week safari in South Africa. Total cost: about $70,000, excluding airfare. “There’s a huge boom in family travel,” said Conde Nast’s Buchmeyer.

* Private villas: For the vacationing family or other group, these can offer privacy, flexibility and five-star services without five-star stuffiness.

Abercrombie & Kent’s Concierge Villas, renting for about $2,000 to $47,600 a week, come with maid service and a concierge to book tee times and other luxuries. They’ve proved so popular that A&K; has quadrupled its inventory, from 10 villas to 40, in the last year and will add more in 2005, Lassers said.

* Far-flung spots. Costa Rica, Europe, Russia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are making it onto many top-dollar itineraries this year. But to really impress your friends, go to Mauritius.

Never heard of it? That’s the point.

“With these affluent travelers, it’s a constant drive for the new and the exotic,” Buchmeyer said.

Mauritius, featured in the magazine’s August issue, affords its visitors bragging rights at cocktail parties back home, he explained. In the Indian Ocean 450 miles east of Madagascar, the island nation is expensive to get to and has great luxury resorts and food and an eclectic culture.

* Excursions: On high-end cruises, these help travelers who are pressed for time -- but not, evidently, for money -- pack more into shorter vacations, another trend.

On a 12-day Baltic cruise last month, on which fares started at $4,395 per person, double occupancy, passengers aboard the company’s Crystal Symphony could add a day trip that took travelers on a one-hour flight from St. Petersburg to Moscow, where they toured the Kremlin and environs, then flew back. The $845 trip drew 100 guests.

Other options on Crystal’s ever-growing excursion roster include kayaking in Copenhagen, biking in Stockholm and riding a hot-air balloon.

The sky isn’t quite the limit for every high-end traveler.

“I didn’t take a $200,000 cruise,” said Agliozzo, the globe-trotting retired doctor. “I did what I could afford.”

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Hear more tips from Jane Engle on this Travel Insider topic at www.latimes.com/engle. She welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.