What emotional value means to Chinese luxury travelers

Ask most people when they last used a travel agent, and you’ll likely get a pause, followed by a story about their parents — from an era of paper tickets and high-street shopfronts. I flew to Las Vegas for Virtuoso Travel Week with a version of that assumption. Virtuoso, the global network specializing in luxury and experiential travel, held the 38th edition of the world’s largest luxury travel trade event from August 8 to 14. The week brought together 4,800 travel professionals from 105 countries. What struck me first was the energy: the place had the charge of a trading floor, with everyone talking about next season like they knew something I didn’t. Advisors who have handled the same client families for a decade were comparing notes on how far European demand has shifted into autumn, which 200-guest ships are launching with Michelin-starred chefs in residence, how much TikTok is shaping client expectations, and where AI belongs in their world. Behind those conversations is Virtuoso, which posts $35 billion in annual sales across more than 1,200 agency locations and over 20,000 advisors in 58 countries. During the opening session, Virtuoso said Greater China was on pace for the strongest year-over-year sales growth of any member region in 2026, at 34.4%. That put it 9 percentage points ahead of the U.K. and Ireland at 25.5%, the next-fastest origin market, and 13.6 percentage points above the network-wide average of 20.8%. The Middle East and Africa were on pace for 24% growth, Continental Europe for 23%, and the U.S. for 21.3%. The projection covers total production across all travel types, excluding air, and was reconciled against preferred partner reporting and agency booking pace as of June 30. Greater China still accounts for a relatively small share of Virtuoso’s overall business compared with North America, so the rate runs off a low base. No other origin market in the network is growing at anything close to it. Deeper into that same session, a slide appeared with the Chinese phrase qingxu jiazhi (情绪价值), translated into English as “emotional value.” What is emotional value? In China, emotional value describes the feeling a purchase produces — treated as part of the product itself. The term migrated from Chinese relationship discourse on Weibo and Xiaohongshu into the language consumers use to talk about spending. A product carries emotional value when the emotional return alone justifies its price, independent of function or resale. Think of a RMB 900 ($133) breakfast that makes a guest feel recognized. For years, Chinese beauty and hospitality brands have built their offerings around the concept. Now, its arrival on a Virtuoso stage suggests that Western advisors have the same word for what their Chinese clients are buying. Jing Daily has tracked the same behavior under different labels, from Zegna’s case for endurance in China to the argument that emotional impact has become a key metric of luxury success. The second term on the slide, “friction-maxxing,” takes the logic a step further. If emotional value is the reward, friction-maxxing is the willingness to work for it. The English-language phrase describes travelers deliberately choosing effort over efficiency because the effort itself becomes part of the experience. Think of an overnight train over a flight that costs less and arrives sooner. As Virtuoso chairman and chief executive Matthew Upchurch put it: “True luxury is what is purposefully inefficient.” Simply put, efficiency has stopped commanding a premium at the top of the market. Both terms are the industry’s attempt to name what replaced it. What clients think they want Clients now arrive at a destination with a specific shot in their heads, often inspired by TikTok and Instagram — which is why short-form video came up all week. Creators optimize their content for views; clients plan six days and a five-figure budget around it. By the time a client reaches an advisor, an AI model has usually handed them the same answers, drawn from the same public content that produced the video. Virtuoso cited duplication of up to 50% in AI-generated travel recommendations. Feed the same prompt into the same systems, and everyone receives the same suggestions, turning small coastal towns into tourist traps. The advisor’s job is to correct the picture. The coastline in the video may be at capacity during the month the client wants to travel, while the light that made the shot compelling belonged to a different season. Advisors are redirecting clients toward the experience that can actually deliver the feeling the video promised. What a human advisor does that an AI model can’t Clients come to an advisor with a request they can articulate, usually a version of something they saw online or something that worked before. But what they actually want is often harder to name, because naming it means saying something about their marriage, their mother, or how tired they are. Say a client asks for a villa with an infinity pool. An advisor who has worked with the family for years knows their last two trips ended in arguments over driving, the daughter-in-law doesn’t swim, and mornings tend to unravel when breakfast isn’t ready early. So the advisor books a property 40 minutes closer to the airport with a smaller pool and a cook who serves breakfast at 7 a.m. The client returns describing it as the best trip they've taken but can’t quite say why. That judgment is built over years of knowing the same clients: their habits, tensions, and unspoken preferences. The advisor’s ability to turn what a client asks for into what will actually make them happy is emotional value, delivered as a service. AI is increasingly part of that service, but not necessarily a replacement for it. Seventy-four percent of Virtuoso advisors and 70% of preferred partners have adopted AI, with accuracy named as the largest concern at 62%. The company has begun building internal tools aimed at supporting advisors instead of substituting them. A model can work only from what a client types; an advisor works from nine years of what the client has left unsaid. Chinese travelers already run their itineraries through Xiaohongshu and domestic AI assistants, which actually makes the gap between information and interpretation wider, not narrower. Data supports the advisor’s role: according to Virtuoso’s 2025 global luxury traveler research, 79% of luxury travelers said they are interested in using an advisor for future travel. Three in four Virtuoso clients cited their advisor’s accommodation and destination expertise as a key benefit, compared with fewer than half of travelers who use other sources of travel advice. Cruising gets an upgrade Cruise came up more than I expected and rarely in the form the word usually implies. The conversation was about ships carrying 100 to 200 guests, with Michelin-starred chefs in residence, gyms that outclass most city memberships, serious spas, and paddle tennis courts on the top deck. In March 2026, Four Seasons Yachts launched its inaugural vessel. Four Seasons I, with 95 suites and a rotating residency program featuring Michelin-starred chefs from its hotels in Athens, Hong Kong, Cap-Ferrat, and Florence. Cruise partners are on pace for 22.4% sales growth in 2026. Sixty-three percent of members reported rising client interest in premium and luxury ocean cruising, climbing to 76% among Baby Boomer advisors. Small-ship and expedition cruising accounted for 52% of reported interest globally and 65% in Australia and New Zealand. Cruise bookings above $50,000 made one and two years out are up 49% compared with the same period in 2025. Climate is moving the calendar Meanwhile, 77% of Virtuoso members reported that climate affects their clients’ travel planning. In 2026, Virtuoso’s autumn bookings are up 59% and sales are up 69%. September leads, with sales up 77% and bookings up 55%, while October bookings are up 59% and November bookings and sales are both up more than 70%. The shift is especially pronounced in Europe. Year-to-date sales at Virtuoso’s preferred European hotels were up 39% through June, while fall bookings to Europe climbed 49%, even as rates rose more than 7%. “Fallcations” are replacing “coolcations” as travelers rethink when to visit the region. The Chinese phrase for this stage is you gan (有感), describing something that has become perceptible on the ground instead of arguable in the abstract. Advisors are rebuilding seasonal itineraries around this shift. As climate reshapes where and when people travel, it is also forcing the industry to think more seriously about its impact. Virtuoso used the week to introduce “Global Stewardship,” a repositioning of its sustainability commitment, which has been in place for 16 years. Jessica Hall Upchurch, vice chair and head of global stewardship, said the awards “reflect an important shift in how we view our collective impact.” Participation in the network’s impact research has risen 258% in three years, while 84% of participating partners said stewardship contributes to profitability. Six luxury travel shifts in 2026 Private clubs gatekeep by design, while longevity programs demand months of adherence before they return anything a guest can feel. Every item in the 2026 column resists optimization the same way. Brand takeaways 1. Greater China is Virtuoso’s fastest-growing origin market. Sales are on pace to grow 34.4% year over year in 2026, ahead of every other region, though from a smaller base than North America. 2. Emotional value is the purchase logic. Chinese consumers have a word for it, and now so does the trade. Brands should audit which parts of a guest experience produce emotional value and which only produce efficiency, then price on that basis. 3. Social video is setting client expectations, and it is frequently wrong. Clients arrive with expectations built from content made for views. Correcting that is now part of the advisor’s service, and brands that provide accurate seasonal information can make that process easier. 4. AI is a tool the network is adopting rather than resisting. Adoption has reached 74% among advisors, but the constraint is interpretation — where advisor relationships still hold their value. 5. Luxury cruising has changed. Small ships with serious kitchens and wellness programs are driving growth, with cruise sales on pace to rise 22% year over year in 2026. 6. Climate has moved the booking calendar. Fall is absorbing summer demand in Europe, and seasonal planning is being rebuilt around it. Chinese travelers have spent recent seasons shifting their spending toward short-haul Asian trips and destinations that deliver a specific feeling rather than a checklist, a pattern visible in what Chinese luxury travelers want from Paris now. Virtuoso’s numbers put a growth rate on that behavior, and the advisors in Las Vegas are the ones translating it into bookings. Frequently asked questions What does “emotional value” (情绪价值) mean? Qíngxù jiàzhí translates to emotional value. It describes the emotional return a purchase delivers, which Chinese consumers treat as the primary thing being bought rather than a byproduct of function or quality. Which region grew the fastest in Virtuoso’s 2026 network sales? Greater China, at 34.4% year over year, ahead of the UK and Ireland at 25.5% and the network average of 20.8%. Will AI replace travel advisors? Virtuoso reported that 74% of its member advisors are already using AI, and the network has been developing internal tools to support them. AI works from what a client states, while an advisor works from a client history that includes what the client won’t say. What is friction-maxxing? The intentional return of effort to travel, where slowness or difficulty becomes part of the experience rather than a drawback. Virtuoso named it a 2026 travel trend alongside “emotional value.”

China’s luxury travel boom runs on emotional value

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag

Upgrade to Pro

Sectors

Insights

Company

China’s luxury travel boom runs on emotional value

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag