Well-off Britons splash out on trips of a lifetime as Covid restrictions ease

theguardian.com:

Wealthy people are “blowing the bloody doors off” on extravagant holidays costing as much as £100,000 to celebrate the easing of coronavirus travel restrictions with extended families.

Sally Donaldson, a store manager of high-end travel agent Kuoni, said she was recently left trembling when a couple with two children spent more than £50,000 on a trip to the Caribbean island of Antigua.

“It’s an awful lot of money. Astonishing really,” Donaldson said. “We’re delighted to help the customers, but when you see that sort of money spent on a holiday you do start to shake a little … It’s more than how many years salary for most people? It makes you wonder what these people do, but everyone works hard and we all deserve a holiday.”

Donaldson, who manages Kuoni’s branch inside the John Lewis department store on London’s Oxford Street, said that after being forced to curtail their travel plans during Covid, customers had spare cash and were now ready to spend big. She and her colleagues have sold some other bespoke trips for more than £100,000.

“People haven’t travelled for two years because of the pandemic, and are really keen to get going again and are not questioning the price,” she said. “I’d say more than 80% mention the pandemic as their reason for wanting to get away, spend time with family they hadn’t been able to over the lockdowns.

“These aren’t your ordinary European breaks,” she said. “These are special trip-of-a-lifetime adventures.”

The trend for booking very expensive holidays as the pandemic eases – dubbed “gratifications” by industry leaders – has been noted in research by the travel agency body ABTA.

“After over two years of severely restricted travel people are desperate to head off overseas and many are booking the