Luxury Travel Show Packs Them In

Times may be tough with the economy, but people still want to travel.

It was a crowded scene at Restaurant MC Monday night for the second annual Luxury Travel Show, and Roy Twiste, event organizer, said the travel industry is still doing well.

"The press is making it worse than it is," he said. "Only corporate air travel is down. Not leisure travel. I've already done 40 percent of the business I did all of last year."

The people who are booking trips are not just the high-end luxury travelers, he said. It crosses all economic brackets.

"It still remains hard to book airfare during holidays," he said. "There's a change in lifestyle."

People have already bought their homes and cars and gadgets, he said, and now they want to spend time together with friends and family. That's why people are still traveling, he said.

Monday's event, which was sponsored by the Millburn-Short Hills Chamber of Commerce, brought together consumers with vendors from hotels, travel planners and tour groups.

Twiste said events similar to Monday's show are usually geared for travel agents, not consumers. He wanted to bring together the vendors with the consumers.

In the luxury market, people are still traveling although they're cutting back how they travel, he said. Travelers may only fly first class on one leg of their flight or reserve a deluxe room rather than a suite, he said.