More Americans are chartering luxury yachts as the number of millionaires in the US rises

• Superyacht bookings increased this summer, with a growing client base among Americans.
• As Russian travelers face restrictions due to the war in Ukraine, Americans are filling the void.

As US household wealth grows, so does the American client base for superyachts.

Stacy Fischer-Rosenthal, president of Fischer Travel Enterprises, told Bloomberg that her company saw a 20% increase in bookings for superyachts this summer. The demand for superyachts was already high in 2021.

Among those chartering yachts are a growing number of Americans, who, in turn, are filling the void left by wealthy Russian travelers facing travel restrictions due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Fraser Yachts, a Monaco-based company that sells, charters, and manages superyachts, saw a 32% increase in bookings compared with a year ago, Mark Duncan, director of marketing and business development at Fraser Yachts, told Bloomberg. Most of that growth, he told Bloomberg, is from Americans who are mostly first-time renters.

It's an effect from climbing American wealth. According to data from consulting and market-research fim Spectrem Group, US households with a net worth between $1 million and $5 million grew from 11.6 million in 2020, to 12.55 million in 2021.

The number of American households with more than $25 million in net worth grew 17.8 percent, from 214,000 in 2020, to 252,000 in 2021.

Fischer-Rosenthal told Bloomberg most of her company's clients "are high-net worth individuals, running banks and hedge funds." Members of Fischer Travel Enterprises have to pay over $100,000 to be invited to join the agency as clients.

"Yacht charters are very popular because our clients want the privacy, security and flexibility that it gives them," Fischer-Rosenthal told Bloomberg.

In an as-told-to essay for Insider, Fischer-Rosenthal said the pandemic has "left long-term negative effects on all aspects of travel," with delay and cancellations at a high.

"The reason people come to us is they want to feel taken care of, to have flexibility, and to have options," Fischer-Rosenthal previously told Insider.

Duncan told Bloomberg that families are turning to yachts to be able to travel with each other during the pandemic.

"Unlike a home, you're not stuck in one place," he told Bloomberg. "And you can control the environment and test everyone for Covid if that's a concern."