The word “roadtrip” conjures up images of families piling into the car – stopping at McDonald’s for meals and staying overnight at a Ramada – or camping.

But a hot new startup called LeisureLogix sees gold in luxury road trips

LeisureLogix. chosen as hottest new start-up at the recent PhoCusWright e-travel conference, is a well-funded startup that launched with a major partnership with Travelocity. The thinking behind LeisureLogix is that, with 88% of all leisure trips being taken in the car, there was room for a site built around that. The site allows travelers to plan their trips based on their interests and in the way they like to travel (type of vehicles, etc.)

Mike Hulley, CEO for LeisureLogix, said there is a luxury roadtrip contingent. He told LT360 recently that, “When we looked at the numbers we decided there was an untapped market place for upscale road trips. We saw that road trips often involve high-end resorts or big cities. Even in natural park areas you will find high-end Bed & Breakfasts – and we have a lot of content around that.”

Hulley said that even affluent customers have trouble redeeming their air miles and are happy to avoid airport hassles. And they can use their miles for hotel nights.  In addition, there are newly popular road themes – like recreating the old Route 66.

There is even an affluent motorcycle market said Hulley who noted that he was in Winter Park recently where 20,000 motorcyclists arrived for an annual festival. “Every hotel was full,” said Hulley, “because these are doctors and lawyers."
       
Harvey Chipkin