You're not imagining it. Everyone's vacationing like a VIP.

19.11.2023 - 11:37 / insider.com / Gilbert Ott

A swanky dinner. A seat in business class. A hotel room with a view.

If you're a traveler with disposable income, chances are you've splurged on at least one of these things.

I'll admit, I have. Gone are the days when I was a 20-something and sharing a dirt-cheap apartment rental in Paris with friends — never mind the mold on the bathroom walls! Now, in my 30s, if I'm going on vacation, I want it to be nice.

And looking at my Instagram feed, it seems as if almost everyone is taking luxurious vacations, so I know I'm not alone.

Even though it's become more expensive to have fun and travel continues to be a mess — flying is a nightmare and cities have a tourism problem — people are vacationing like never before.

"Demand for American travelers to go somewhere is still at near-record highs," Amir Eylon, the CEO of the market-research consultancy Longwoods International, told me. The firm surveyed 1,000 American adults in October, and 91% said they have travel plans in the next six months.

"With such a sustained level of demand, we are seeing people spending more," Eylon said, adding that it's partly because of inflation and because some people saved more during the COVID-19 pandemic. While they may have spent a lot of that money since, he said, people with disposable income are dipping into their savings for trips.

And inflation hasn't affected people's travel plans as much as you might expect. Only 22% of those involved in Longwoods International's survey said inflation would "greatly impact" their choice to travel in the next six months.

A few industry experts told me we're still in a "revenge travel" stage following the pandemic, and it's driving travelers to splurge.

"Our clients are spending more, and they're traveling for longer periods of time," Cheri Ozimac, a senior travel designer at Tully Luxury Travel, told Business Insider. Ozimac added that after so much time lost to COVID, people are saying: "'Let's make this trip fabulous and upgrade to business class and just go all out because time is precious.' They don't know what tomorrow's going to bring."

Similarly, Anna Abelson, an adjunct professor at New York University's Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, noted a sentiment among travelers to "live it up." She said her research shows that "travel is somehow looked as a need rather than a want" right now and seen as beneficial to mental health.

People are also splurging with credit-card points, Gilbert Ott, the travel blogger behind God Save the Points, told me. He said he's noticed "a much bigger focus on the actual burning of points now," such as people cashing in points for flight upgrades.

"I feel like there's a very 'YOLO' kind of time with that now," he said.

Curious to know how others