The New Luxury Travel with
Virtuoso CEO, Matthew Upchurch
We’re all eager to travel internationally again, but what will the new world of luxury travel look like? No one knows better than Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch, who speaks with Bruce about where to go, how to do it, and what you’ll discover as a post-pandemic traveler. From Iceland to outer space, Upchurch offers up his expert insights and advice on how to navigate the newluxury-travel landscape.
Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch joins Bruce to talk about international luxury travel in the post-pandemic world. Virtuoso is a leading name in luxury travel with a network of nearly 20,000 advisors worldwide. As people were stuck at home, many of those travel advisors—a term Upchurch much prefers to ‘travel agents’—pivoted to help their clients plan big-ticket trips in the distant future. But as borders open, Upchurch says Virtuoso is seeing unprecedented demand for this summer and beyond.
Now that we’re ready to venture internationally again, how will we do it, where will we go, and what will we find? Will we return to our favorite destinations—some of which we were guilty of loving too much in what Upchurch calls the pre-pandemic Golden Age of Travel—or will we take advantage of our renewed freedoms to explore new and off-the-beaten-path destinations? Upchurch dives into issues of over-tourism, the lasting impacts of the pandemic, which destinations are booming—and which ones aren’t—and the fundamental question of why people travel for leisure. He also shares some of his own travel plans, including the trip he’s most excited about: a journey into space on one of Virgin Galactic’s inaugural flights.
Hosted by: Bruce Wallin
Produced and edited by: AJ Moseley & Darra Stone
Music by: Joey Salvia
​