Urban destinations continue to top the list of vacation destinations preferred by affluent leisure travelers, with New York City and Las Vegas receiving top mentions according to a recent Ypartnership Portrait of Affluent Travelers.

Maui, San Francisco and Honolulu round out the top five in this nationally-representative survey of 800 U.S. adults living in households with a minimum annual income in excess of $150,000 (the top 8% of all U.S. households defined by current income) conducted during August of 2008.

According to the survey results, three in ten affluent leisure travelers are interested in visiting New York City and Las Vegas during the next two years. One in four is interested in visiting Maui, San Francisco and Honolulu, and approximately two in ten are interested in traveling to Orlando or San Diego. Four new destinations made the top ten domestic list in the most recent iteration of the survey, which is conducted every two years: Honolulu, Orlando, Napa/Sonoma and Hilton Head Island.

• New York City   29%
• Las Vegas   29%
• Maui, Hawaii   26%
• San Francisco   25%
• Honolulu   24%
• Orlando   22%
• San Diego   21%
• Washington, D.C.   18%
• Napa/Sonoma, Calif.   18%
• Hilton Head Island, SC   16%

Interest in visiting Europe during the next two years remains strong, with seven in ten affluent travelers citing the region as their preferred international destination. Within Europe, Italy continues to reign as the number one choice for almost one-third of affluent American leisure travelers. The Far East, Mexico and Australia follow respectively. Interest in visiting the Caribbean, South Pacific and Africa declined since 2006, with interest in visiting the Caribbean reflecting the most significant decline.

• Europe   72%
• Far East   15%
• Mexico   14%
• Australia   14%
• Caribbean   11%
• Canada   11%
• South/Central America   10%
• Middle East   6%
• South Pacific   5%
• Africa   4%

“The preferences measured in this survey auger well for the listed destinations because the survey also revealed that affluent travelers plan to take slightly more trips in the year ahead than they did last year,” said Peter C. Yesawich, Chairman and CEO of Ypartnership. Note: the survey was done before the financial meltdown really started last year, so those plans for more trips have probably changed now.

Ypartnership is a worldwide advertising and public relations agency that specializes in serving travel, leisure and entertainment industry clients and is co-author of the widely-quoted National Travel Monitor with Yankelovich, Inc.

There are fractional properties in most of the domestic US popular locations - although I don't know of many fractional properties around Washington DC. - does anyone else ? Let us know in the fractional forums.