Luxury’s Got Big Yacht Energy

Is every influencer invited on the Alo superyacht? On Wednesday, Kylie Jenner posted scenes from somewhere in the Mediterranean, drinking Alo-branded lattes and wearing Alo workout sets, shortly after she was photographed doing reformer Pilates atop the ship’s deck. Previously, Alix Earle, Jake Shane, Anastasia Karanikolaou and Stella Jones shared their own updates at sea with Alo, from fitness sessions with wellness instructors to below-deck getting ready videos. They’re all aboard Alo Voyage, a 72-meter privately chartered yacht journey that set sail from the French Riviera in May and is now serving as the brand’s floating campaign HQ.

“The idea was never about spectacle for its own sake, but to bring an elevated expression of wellness to life in a way that felt authentic to the season and to our community,” says Alo’s EVP of marketing and creative Summer Nacewicz. “Today’s luxury consumer is increasingly looking for brands that participate in their lifestyle beyond the point of purchase. They’re seeking meaningful experiences that reflect their values and interests, and that's something we've observed consistently across markets.”

Alo isn’t the only brand aboard a yacht this summer. Mytheresa has been teasing its yacht experience on the French Riviera, part of a new strategy to build out its luxury clienteling events, as discussed by CEO Francis Belin at the recent Vogue Business Global Summit. The program includes Missoni and tailoring atelier Saman Amel trunk shows, and multi-brand personal shopping experiences. “It’s not a shop. It’s a place where we meet you, as a customer, we create that relationship, and you meet our personal shoppers,” Belin said at the event. “The intention is not to sell. If we want to sell, we do that much better when you are online. But it’s a way for us to scale. It’s a great platform for us to bring them into the Maison Mytheresa world.”

Elsewhere, luxury travel giant Orient Express has just begun the maiden voyage for its sailing yacht, which offers 54 suites, Michelin-starred catering, and Guerlain spa experiences. TikTokers, including lifestyle creators such as Hannah Desai, Elisha and Renee Herbert, and Marc Mestre, have amassed huge view counts across social platforms — TikTok, especially — showcasing the yacht to their respective international communities through low-fi, relatable yet aspirational storytelling. In March, the Four Seasons inaugurated its first yacht, complete with 11 restaurants and lounges and an on-deck wellness and spa experience. The second yacht will debut in 2028. And come Spring 2027, Aman’s 47-suite yacht, Amangati, will leave port, complete with sanctuary-style wellness facilities and on-board accessories and fashion shopping.

These highly prestigious jaunts come amidst a wider yachting surge that’s seen some of the most influential faces take to the seas: Kim and Khloe Kardashian have been sharing snaps on deck in Monaco, perma-vacationers Dua Lipa and Callum Turner spent some of their honeymoon on a superyacht, and Bella Hadid has also been seen posing on a sundeck in Cannes.

Brands have taken note, and for good reason. In this K-shaped economy — where higher earners increase discretionary spending and lower earners pare back on luxuries — it makes sense that labels are looking towards the pastimes of UHNWIs for a return on investment, especially when other sectors of luxury have dwindled. Per Bain & Company, while the global luxury goods market saw spending stabilize following the post-lockdown boom, luxury experiences overtook luxury products, owing to a spending appetite for wellness, self-care, and social interaction. Within this, the market for private jets and yachts expanded 9% at current rates to €34 billion ($39.5 billion). Meanwhile, the luxury cruise market grew quickly, climbing 10% at current rates to €6 billion ($7 billion), concurrent with a rise in ultra-luxury fleets and a demand beyond the original North American consumers.

“What some brands understood is something our data has been signaling for several seasons: the codes of luxury are being rewritten by the consumer themselves,” says Federica Levato, senior partner at Bain & Company. “Traditional luxury signifiers are losing primacy. Today, luxury is about how you live — the quality of your time, the depth of your experiences, how you care for yourself. It is curated time, curated access, curated community.” As she sees it, an increase in the wealth of UHNWIs, the expansion of luxury tourism, and a new sector for chartered and fractional ownership — where a yacht is split into equity shares — has created a substantial opportunity for fashion brands, reflecting the move away from property to experiences.

Similarly, Fflur Roberts, head of luxury goods at Euromonitor International, pinpoints global wealth expansion in emerging markets as a core driver of the new yacht economy. In these growing regions, the number of wealthy individuals has risen 300% since 2005, and another 2.2 million are forecast to join the “affluent” bracket in the next five years.

It’s here that fashion has seen a gap in the market. In essence, alongside an already established but small cohort of yacht users, a new consumer who wants to engage with yacht culture without stringent financial commitments is emerging, and many of them expect the same cues and service protocols seen in luxury retail and fashion seeding activations.

“This shift is broadening the geographic, cultural, and demographic footprint of yacht consumption, accelerating demand beyond traditional Western strongholds and reinforcing long-term resilience at the top end of the market,” explains Roberts. “In this context, the yacht is no longer the product; it is the platform.” As she sees it, this is a critical distinction that explains the faster growth of charter and explorer yachts, and bespoke itineraries over traditional ownership models. “Chartering, in particular, is emerging as both an entry point and a lifestyle preference, aligning with a more flexible, experience-led approach to luxury consumption.”

Together, the landscape allows fashion and prestigious resort companies to diversify and meet new, wealthy audiences with refreshed consumer expectations for potentially promising return on investment. As such, winning in this space requires brands to rethink the playbook for a yacht experience, all while considering how that might translate when shared across a highly critical social media landscape where yachting life is out of reach.

This double bind is tricky, but manageable. Bia Bezamat, associate director at market research firm Kantar, observes that for younger consumers, “flexing” is less about what they own and more about what they can access that others can’t. In this way, at-sea activations offer an antidote to the hegemony of social media, where everyone visits the same activations, restaurants, and travel destinations. Teasing luxury products in a setting that can only truly be experienced by a small few is useful in distinguishing a brand’s cachet. “Every single brand is constantly trying to build ecosystems, an entire world that their brand can orbit around,” she says. “Yachts help brands build these immersive ecosystems and control every aspect, from the look, narrative, and experience, down to the people on the guestlist.”

Cora Delaney, CEO and founder of London-based talent agency EYC, can also see the potential. “From a talent management and creative event production perspective, the appeal is that a yacht offers exclusivity without looking overly corporate,” she says. “It provides a backdrop for storytelling around travel, wellness, fashion, and lifestyle all at once.”

However, there are pitfalls to keep in mind. “The setting should always support an authentic narrative rather than become the narrative itself,” she explains. “The strongest campaigns are those where the creator’s audience understands why they are there and what value they are adding beyond simply displaying wealth.”

Delaney cites influencer Alix Earle’s content from the Alo charter as best in class. The creator’s Instagram dump — which fits neatly into a playful, lifestyle output — amassed 768,000 likes and counting, while her TikTok video diaries almost all surpassed a million views, all pleasing metrics for a marketing exec to take back to the boardroom. Alongside her shipmates — Shane, Karanikolaou, and Jones included — she released a stream of typically unhinged, skit-like, and anti-influencer reels, such as her signature “un-get ready with me” videos, flooding feeds with a refreshing alternative to inaccessibly glamorous, polished content. In other words, wealth-gap-conscious yachting.

To judge the success of the overall yacht excursion, Alo’s Nacewicz says the brand looked at community engagement, earned media impact, content performance, and overall brand affinity. “One of the most encouraging outcomes was the level of organic engagement generated both on the ground and digitally,” she says. “More broadly, Alo Voyage reinforced our position within the luxury wellness space and demonstrated how experiential storytelling can deepen affinity for the brand over time.”

Taking a more personalized route, Nordic luxury hotel magnate Jonas Stenberg — the founder of Scandinavian hospitality company ESS Group — is just one of the new players betting on yachts for the first time, offering one- or multi-day charters along the Palma coastline with stop-offs at beach clubs, ideal for those wanting to engage in yacht culture with more of a plug-and-play format. What drew him to this space after creating a billion-kroner ($105 million) hospitality company? “The reason is to learn more about international guests,” says Stenberg, whose boat guests come from the Nordics, Europe, North and South America, and are typically business owners, senior executives, or successful athletes — often well-traveled, experienced yacht users with high expectations for service and personal interactions.