Art Basel Beyond Miami: The Rise of Global Art Weekends

Art Basel has redefined global art culture, and its international outposts in Hong Kong, Paris, and São Paulo are setting new standards for high-end art curation. Explore the shift towards art tourism, exclusive VIP previews, and the billion-dollar deals happening behind closed gallery doors.

Photo By Toxic Smoker

Luxury art fairs have evolved from single-city events into globe-trotting cultural extravaganzas. High-net-worth collectors now hop between Art Basel 2025 editions and other international fairs as if following a fashion week circuit, turning each event into a lavish “art weekend.” What began in Basel and Miami has expanded to global art weekends in Paris, Hong Kong, and São Paulo – a shift that is redefining cultural tourism and the art world’s social calendar. Billionaires, museum patrons, and design-forward jet-setters descend on these destinations for VIP art previews, multimillion-dollar deals, and indulgent afterparties. It’s a new era where business, culture, and pleasure meet against exotic backdrops.

Paris+ Par Art Basel: The European Jewel

Paris has re-emerged as the jewel of the global art circuit. Launched in 2022, Paris+ par Art Basel quickly became a magnet for the international art elite. Art Newspaper reports the 2023 VIP preview was “heaving, and with a lot of Americans,” one dealer observed, standing by a $40 million Rothko on display. In fact, there were more American collectors at Paris+ than at Frieze London the week prior, and galleries clinched eight-figure sales in hours – David Zwirner’s gallery alone moved a $6 million Kerry James Marshall painting on opening day. Beyond the fair itself, the city amplifies the experience: luxury maisons host private dinners in gilded salons, five-star hotels brim with VIPs and celebrities, and exclusive previews at the Louvre or Fondation Louis Vuitton make the city's art weekend a bold blend of culture. The result is a cultural tourism boom, with Paris harnessing Art Basel’s glamour to reinforce its status as an apex destination for art and luxury travel.

Hong Kong: Gateway to Asia’s Art Elite

If Paris offers Old World grandeur, Hong Kong delivers high-octane cosmopolitan flair. Art Basel Hong Kong has become the gateway to Asia’s art elite, where Eastern and Western collectors converge amid skyscraper views and Michelin-star dining. The nights leading up to the fair are packed with underground parties and gallery soirées, as top collectors often jet out soon after the first VIP day. In 2025, one art insider’s itinerary included an elegant Cantonese banquet hosted by a gallery at Mott 32 and a posh afterparty thrown by Gagosian at the Mandarin Oriental – all before the fair even opened. When the doors opened on March 26, the VIP preview drew throngs of prominent collectors and curators seeking early access to coveted works. Attendees noted a measured approach to buying, yet the atmosphere stayed buoyant. Beyond the convention center, Hong Kong itself becomes an art playground: think curated museum nights, gallery hops in Central, and city-sponsored pop-ups. In one novel twist, the Hong Kong Tourism Board installed a traditional Cha Chaan Teng café inside Art Basel Paris to entice global visitors to experience Hong Kong’s culture. The city’s luxury hotels like the Rosewood and Peninsula are fully booked with VIPs, and private jet charters between Hong Kong and other art capitals spike during the fair. In short, Art Basel Hong Kong has cemented itself as an unmissable stop on the luxury art fairs circuit, blending cutting-edge art with the dynamism of Asia’s world city.

Photo courtesy of SP-Arte

São Paulo: Latin America’s Turn in the Spotlight

In São Paulo, Brazil’s financial hub, an Art Basel-like atmosphere is thriving at the annual SP–Arte fair. The 2025 edition of SP–Arte – Latin America’s largest fair – saw nearly triple the number of foreign collectors and curators compared to recent years. An influx of international collectors, from New York and London to Doha and beyond, signals a renewed appetite for Latin American art on the world stage. Indeed, São Paulo’s edition offers a refreshing complement to the frenetic pace of Basel or Hong Kong. Collectors spend afternoons browsing modernist Niemeyer-designed pavilions and evenings at gallery dinners in Jardim Europa or rooftop caipirinha receptions overlooking Ibirapuera Park. The city’s renowned restaurants and hotels join in, crafting bespoke experiences for the art crowd – think chef-curated menus at D.O.M. for visiting patrons or after-hours parties set to bossa nova beats. By embracing global art weekends, São Paulo has positioned itself as Latin America’s cultural capital, proving that the art-market jet set will happily add a South American stop to their annual grand tour.

Basel 2024. Photo Courtesy of Art Basel

From VIP Previews to Private Jets: The New Art World Itinerary

Welcome to an art world where VIP art previews are just the beginning of a luxe weekend itinerary. At each global art fair, invitation-only preview days see the “cream of the art world” queue up amid bustling aisles and bottomless champagne flutes. These first-look events are as much about networking and scene-making as they are about buying art. VIP programs offer concierge service and exclusive access that blur the line between commerce and leisure – one could start the day with a private collection visit or an artist’s studio tour, enjoy a catered lunch in the VIP lounge, then head to a VIP art preview at the fair. Evenings bring glitzy afterparties at iconic venues, where collectors, artists, and celebrities mingle. In Miami Beach, this might mean dancing under the stars at a seaside villa; in Paris, a midnight fête at a Palais; in Hong Kong, business deals sealed over late-night M+ parties. By the time the weekend wraps, billions of dollars in art have traded hands globally – total art sales topped $57.5 billion in 2024– and countless new connections have been forged over cocktails and canvases.

What’s clear is that global art weekends have transformed art fairs into destination events that transcend geography. From Paris and Hong Kong to São Paulo, Art Basel and its peers are redefining cultural tourism by marrying high art with high living. And as the art caravan moves from one glamorous city to the next, the art weekend has become the ultimate luxury escape, proving that in the 21st-century art world, business class and culture now share the same itinerary.