Last updated: 4 June 2026.

This page is your sourced market intelligence on where travellers are moving and why. If you run a destination, a hotel group, or a travel consultancy, use it two ways: as a scan of demand shifts, and as a filter for which trends deserve operational attention versus marketing attention. Every statement carries a source link so you can follow the evidence yourself.

Sources: TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026, Virtuoso Sustainability Survey 2026, Booking.com, Skift, Mastercard, Future Market Insights, and our own client work. Refreshed as new signals land in our newsletters.

Latest signals — what matters most right now

  • Rural tourism is entering a high-growth phase — the global market is set to more than double by 2036. Valued at USD 32.1 billion in 2025 and projected to reach USD 76.4 billion by 2036 (CAGR 8.2%), rural tourism is being driven by traveller demand for authentic cultural immersion, homestays, and community-based experiences — precisely the signals VTP tracks. Cultural Immersion leads at 29.8% of demand; homestays dominate accommodation at 41.7% share. Agritourism, eco-tourism, and wellness retreats are the fastest-growing sub-segments. Asia Pacific is the fastest-expanding regional market. For destinations and operators positioned around nature, local stories, and genuine community access, this data confirms that demand is structural, not cyclical. (Future Market Insights, June 2026)
  • Europeans are rejecting algorithmically curated travel. Mastercard's May 2026 research names it "Indie Everything" — a cultural shift toward spontaneous, locally-embedded, in-person discovery. Travel is the #1 screen-break activity this summer (79%). For destinations built on authenticity, this is the strongest demand signal in years.
  • Fewer trips, bigger budgets. US travellers are consolidating into fewer, higher-quality trips and reallocating spend toward distinctive, story-rich experiences. The "quality over quantity" thesis is now data-backed, not aspirational.
  • Off-peak is becoming the sustainable default. 79% of Virtuoso advisors say their clients are choosing off-peak more often — 60% to avoid crowds, 29% for flexibility and value. Shoulder-season marketing is no longer a niche pitch; it's where the demand is moving.
  • AI is the default trip-planner for Chinese travellers. 70%+ have formed regular AI travel-tool habits, generating complete itineraries in under 30 seconds. For destinations targeting Chinese visitors, being structured and "AI-readable" is becoming a prerequisite for visibility.
  • Overtourism backlash is accelerating — and the reputational damage spreads faster than the crowds. From the Dolomites capping car access to Amalfi Coast footage going viral for the wrong reasons, managing crowd perception is now as important as managing crowd numbers.
  • Family travel is diversifying, not shrinking. Pairenting (one parent + one child), gramping (grandparent + grandchild), and multigenerational trips are all gaining share. Virtuoso ranks immediate and multigenerational family travel in their top five 2026 luxury travel trends.
  • Airbnb is betting on community and creator-led local experiences as the next demand driver. CEO Brian Chesky's May 2026 product update centres on AI-driven personalisation and the revival of Experiences — with early creator-led pilots showing strong conversion rates. For destinations, this signals growing traveller appetite for genuine local access and story-driven encounters over packaged tourism. PhocusWire, May 2026.
  • The European Commission's proposed rail ticketing overhaul could unlock slow-travel itineraries across borders. The Passenger Package would open online rail ticketing to third-party distributors and strengthen protections for multi-operator journeys — making it easier to book cross-country rail trips in a single transaction. For destination marketers, frictionless rail discovery is a meaningful tailwind for off-beaten-path European routes. PhocusWire, May 2026.

On this page

Travel Experiences and Activity Trends

What travelers do when they arrive is fragmenting. Active, adventure, and culturally embedded experiences are eating the share of "just visit" itineraries. Two 2026 shifts matter most: race-cations (travelers plan trips around a marathon or endurance event) and extreme adventure verticals (high-altitude, underground, wild water).

  • Race-cations are a planning primitive, not a side trip. Travelers pick the destination because the marathon, trail race, or cycling sportive is there; the itinerary is built around race day. Active Travel is Trendcast 2026's #1 trend, with race-cations called out specifically. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • Extreme adventure is splitting into three verticals: high-altitude, underground, and wild water. Glacier trekking, via-ferrata climbing, cave and mine tourism, and wild swimming / cold-water immersion are the fastest-growing sub-categories inside adventure travel. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • Hyper Local, travelers want to dig deep into a city / region (Nov 2023 Fastcompany). Having great culinary experiences and cultural immersion activities with genuine interactions (Jan 2024 Hospitality World), and everyday experiences that reveal real local life. (Feb 26, Travel & Tour World), the article sees a trend called grocery store tourism, that identifies tourist love to visit local markets and neighbourhood stores as a glimpse into daily routines, food traditions, and national identity.
  • Nearly 58% of global travellers are drawn to destinations that offer immersive or interactive experiences. (Nov 2025, Travel and Tour World)
  • Staged ethnic photoshoots, where you wear traditional costumes, get your hair and makeup done and take the shoots before beautiful backdrops is a trend under Asian travelers (June 2024 TravelWeekly)
  • Diving deep into a hobby with other enthusiast, like wine, arts etc (Nov 2023 Fastcompany).
  • Digital detox vacations—where phones are locked up or properties have no to little Wi-Fi—have been growing in popularity for years. (March 2025, Global Wellness Summit)
  • The unplugged-travel category is hardening into product, not a vibe. In 2026, resorts are physically locking guests' phones in pouches at check-in and luxury rental platforms are tagging properties as "unplugged" so travellers can filter for them — moving digital detox from aspiration into a bookable amenity with operational rules behind it. For destinations leaning into nature, outdoors, and slow-travel positioning, this is the productisation moment of a long-running demand signal. (Raleigh News & Observer, May 2026)
  • Astrotourism is moving from niche to a named Gen Z travel category. Stargazing trips, dark-sky escapes, astronomy camps, and meteor-shower itineraries are being planned and packaged as standalone reasons to travel — particularly among younger travellers seeking slower, screen-free, awe-led experiences. The trend slots naturally beside forest bathing and digital detox: same audience, same motivation (reconnecting with nature), different anchor. Destinations with low light pollution and strong dark-sky credentials should treat this as a positioning opening, not a fad. (iDiva, May 2026)
  • Slow Travel, taking time and dig deeper into quality rich and unique experiences of local culture and gastronomy (Nov 2023 Fastcompany).
  • Travellers in every segment are actively seeking out meaningful experiences and services designed just for them. Matteo Atti in Gulf Business (May 2023)
  • Active and adventure travel is in the lift according to Jamie Biesiada in Travel West (June 16 2022) and Contese Agency (feb 2023)
  • People are seeking new holiday experiences that are unique, diverse and more adventurous than before, and they are looking for that holiday online. Contese Agency (feb 2023)
  • Forrest Bathing - going out in Nature also called Shinrin-yoku becomes a bigger travel trend in 2023 - According to Skyscanners
  • Travelers like to be part of sustainable tourism by helping to reducing waste by bringing reusable water battles, bags, etc. To support wildlife conservation; by traveling during the off-season and or to less-visited destinations; to contribute to causes that benefit the destinations and communities they visit; by travelling with sustainable minded travel companies. (Travel West, June 18, 2022)
  • More travelers like to recharge, rebalance and reconnect with nature (Irish News 2024)
  • Microactions - Short Holidays are trending is several countries around the globe including the United States and China (China Daily, Aug 2022)
  • Solo Travelling is still growing in 2024. Me time, self discovery and healing are topics that fit well for solo travelers (Jan 2024 Hospitality World)
  • In Europe climate change could shift more people to northern destinations in the summer and change the seasons of southern Europe destinations. July 2023, CBC To monitor this check our demand monitor form google trends for Southern Europe countries.
  • 75% of global travelers say they want to travel more sustainably. (Travel West December 2024)
  • Space Tourism - Virgin Galactic Organizes one space flight per quarter (Yahoo Finance March 2024)
  • Digital Nomads are still increasing there are now 35 million of them and more then 50 countries have special visas for digital nomads (AA, November 2024)
  • Wildflower tourism is a fast-growing seasonal sub-trend. Travellers are timing trips to in-bloom destinations — spring tulip routes, alpine wildflower meadows, desert superblooms — turning short-lived natural beauty into an itinerary anchor. (Euronews, April 2026)
  • The 2026 US outlook: fewer trips, bigger budgets, more unique experiences. Travellers are consolidating into a smaller number of higher-quality trips and reallocating spend toward distinctive, story-rich experiences rather than volume. The pattern reinforces the "quality over quantity" thesis already visible in the slow-travel and meaningful-experience signals above. (Travel and Tour World, April 2026)
  • Gen Z is leading the US charge south — Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America are the generational sweet spot. Age data shows a clear generational split in US outbound travel: Gen Z (18–34) is significantly more likely to choose southern, experience-rich destinations than older cohorts, with Mexico, Caribbean resorts, and Latin American cities topping their wish lists. Low-cost carriers, location-flexible work, and an experience-first mindset — rather than price or weather alone — are collectively reshaping the geography of US outbound travel. For destination marketers targeting American visitors, this generational skew is a concrete audience signal worth building into channel and content strategy. (Travel and Tour World, May 2026)
  • "Indie Everything" — Europeans are trading screens for authentic, independent travel. Mastercard's May 2026 analysis shows travel and tourism (79%) is the top "screen break" activity for European consumers this summer. A new cultural movement — "Indie Everything" — is emerging: a rejection of algorithmically curated content and experiences in favour of spontaneous, locally-embedded, in-person discovery. For destinations and operators aligned with VTP's passion-first lens, this is a concrete demand signal: travellers are explicitly seeking the antithesis of mass-market, algorithm-served itineraries. (Mastercard, May 2026)
  • "Salvaged stays" are turning historic buildings into the most characterful places to sleep. Churches, mills, fortresses and other heritage structures are being converted into hotels and rentals where the building's own history is the headline amenity — a 2026 trend with built-in local-story potential for destinations rich in old architecture. (Departing Now, May 2026)
  • Slow travel is confirmed as the dominant 2026 travel philosophy — 42% of travellers now prefer unplanned, restorative trips. Depth over breadth has shifted from a niche preference to the mainstream default, and print is emerging as a natural home for slow, narrative-led destination storytelling. (Skift, December 2025)

Hyper-Regional Spirits & Drinks Tourism

Regional spirits are becoming destination drivers. Travelers seek drinks that only exist in one place — Chinese guanxi, Japanese awamori, Colombian viche, Uruguayan grappa miel — and plan trips around the distilleries, master distillers, and indigenous ingredients that make them. This is the anti-global-cocktail-menu movement.

  • Distilleries are destinations, not souvenir shops. The visit, the story, the ingredient become the reason for the trip. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • Four breakout regional spirits to watch in 2026: Chinese guanxi, Japanese awamori (Okinawan rice-based spirit), Colombian viche (sugarcane, Pacific coast, indigenous heritage), Uruguayan grappa miel (honey-grappa). (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • The value frame is heritage, not volume. Hyper-regional spirits sit closer to wine-region tourism than to craft-beer tourism — the story is land + technique + family, not scale.

Food-System Tourism

Farm-to-table has matured into full-ecosystem food tourism. Travelers want to see the loop — indigenous partnerships, watershed restoration, producer networks — not just the plated meal. Food tourism's 2026 defining property is regenerative: restaurants and hotels that leave the land better than they found it.

  • 1 Hotels builds food programs through indigenous partnerships. The brand's 2026 culinary positioning centers on indigenous producer relationships and regenerative agriculture, not celebrity chefs. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026 · 1 Hotels)
  • Stay Charlevoix (Québec) treats food as a regional route. The destination markets a multi-stop food experience across producers, not a single restaurant. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026 · Stay Charlevoix)
  • The lens shift: travelers increasingly ask who is this food helping? alongside does it taste good?. Food-system tourism is where culinary, sustainability, and local-economy narratives converge.

Kid-Led & Multi-Generational Travel

Family travel is de-nucleating. The nuclear-family trip is losing share to configurations that skip generations or split parents — and operators are responding with pairings-as-product.

  • Pairenting: one parent + one child, deliberately 1:1. Designed to deepen the single-parent-single-child bond, often following divorce or sibling-spacing. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • Gramping: grandparents + grandchildren, no middle generation. Positioned as legacy travel — the grandparent passes on a place, a skill, a story. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • Kid-led itineraries: children pick the destinations and the activities; parents follow. This is the clearest sign of the inversion — the child is the client, not the passenger. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • Virtuoso ranks multigenerational and immediate family travel as two of the top five 2026 luxury travel trends. The confirmation from a high-end advisor network reinforces what the pairenting and gramping signals already suggest: family travel is not shrinking — it is diversifying into configurations that operators need to design for explicitly. (Virtuoso Luxe Report 2026, TravelAge West)

Real-and-Rare Shopping & Artisan Souvenirs

Shopping is becoming a reason for the trip, not a stop during it. The counter-trend to AI-homogenized consumer goods is the vintage store, the flea market, and the artisan workshop — one-of-one, real provenance, story you can tell.

  • Vintage stores and flea markets are itinerary anchors. Travelers plan whole trips around a specific market (Paris Puces, Camden Stables, Mercato dei Balocchi). (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • Artisan workshops are destinations with a tool in the traveler's hand. Ceramics, leatherwork, weaving, luthier visits — the point is participation, not observation. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • Related VTP coverage: southern European cluster destinations are over-indexed on this trend — see our analysis of southern Europe demand.

Restorative Nightlife

Nightlife is decoupling from alcohol and late hours. Travelers are seeking evening product that restores rather than depletes — and the category is growing fast enough that destinations can build around it.

Pet Travel

Pet travel has moved from "dog-friendly" to a full product category. The 2026 standard includes pet passports, dedicated concierge, and luxury packages designed for the pet as a traveler, not an allowance.

Using tech during travel experiences

The 2026 shift is that AI is no longer replacing human service in travel — it's augmenting it. The winning operators use AI to free human staff for higher-touch moments, not to remove them.

  • AI-enhanced human connection is the 2026 hospitality design principle. Concierges use AI to remember preferences, pre-surface options, and compress admin — so they can spend their real time on the parts of hospitality that require presence. The "AI replaces humans" framing is giving way to "AI makes humans more available." (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026)
  • AI travel assistants are now the default planning tool for Chinese travellers, with 70%+ having formed regular AI travel-tool habits. Personal AI assistants generate complete, tailored itineraries in under 30 seconds — booking flights, hotels, and suggesting optimal routes in a single flow. China's tourism AI has evolved from a simple search tool into a full-trip concierge, embedding itself across planning, on-site guidance, and spending decisions. For destinations and operators who want to reach Chinese travellers, being "AI-readable" — structured content, bookable APIs — is becoming a prerequisite for visibility. (CGTN, April 2026)

The use of Artificial Intelligence to create better tourism experience

  • Use of Augmented Reality to add extra information / entertain to tourist site like for example Chronos, that shows while you walk through the Acroplolis how it looked 2000 years ago.
  • Gamification to bring the stories of a destination alive like for example the Paris Region is doing with its family treasure hunt.
  • XR, VR and AR glasses of both Sony and Apple are starting to pave they way to bring more immersive and realistic digital worlds to tourism experiences. And or bring those experiences into the homes of consumers through the Meta Verse
  • Exoskeleton robots that help more people do physically challenging tourism experiences like trekking. (Travel Weekly Asia Feb 2025)
  • AI "digital humans" as in-destination concierges are moving from pilot to deployment. Liverpool City Region is rolling out "Jimmy," an AI-integrated digital human, to greet and guide international tourists arriving for The Open golf championship in Southport — a concrete example of destinations using generative AI to scale a warm welcome without scaling staff. Watch this category: it pairs naturally with the "AI augments humans" principle above. (Liverpool City Region Destination Partnership, April 2026)
  • Hotel rooms are becoming directly bookable inside ChatGPT and Claude. DirectBooker has signed five of the ten biggest global hotel chains and gone live as an app inside ChatGPT and a connector inside Claude, exposing real-time rates, availability, and member-direct benefits via Model Context Protocol. The supply-side response to AI-driven trip planning is now concrete: brands that aren't "AI-readable" risk disappearing from the planning surface entirely. (PhocusWire, April 2026 · SiteMinder MCP, April 2026)
  • Uber is converting itself into a travel super-app. The new Expedia partnership puts more than 700,000 hotels (with Vrbo vacation rentals to follow) inside the Uber app, paired with Uber One credits and a Travel Mode that surfaces local recommendations and OpenTable reservations. From June 2026 the integration runs both ways — Uber rides become bookable directly inside Expedia. The trip-planning surface is consolidating into apps travellers already use daily for non-travel reasons. (PhocusWire, April 2026)
  • TikTok is formalising in-app travel bookings — social discovery is collapsing into commerce. TikTok has confirmed in-app booking integrations with Booking.com, Expedia, and Trip.com, turning the platform's travel-discovery surface into a direct purchase channel. Where Uber and AI chat represent the "habitual app" and "AI agent" booking surfaces, TikTok represents the "inspiration loop" — a viral video becoming a booked hotel night without the traveller ever leaving the feed. For destinations and independent hotels, the implication is the same as with AI booking: be structured, be available on the right APIs, or risk disappearing from the planning surface entirely. (PhocusWire, May 2026)

Using Tech to find the best holiday

AI system, become more and more common and personalized, see for example the Expedia Chat GTP plugin.

Luxury Travel Trends

Luxury is unbundling. The all-inclusive, everything-bundled luxury package is losing ground to à la carte models — pay only for the suite, spa, pool, or service you actually want. Travelers want luxury on their terms.

Matteo Atti, the chief marketing officer at VistaJet and Vista says in Golf Business, that he believes luxury is about freedom. To choose from anything that is available and what makes a person feel good and exactly fit their needs.

  • À la carte luxury is the 2026 pricing model shift. ResortPass sells day-passes to high-end resort amenities (pool, spa, restaurant) without requiring an overnight stay; luxury properties are selling their amenities as SKUs, not as bundles. (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026 · ResortPass)
  • Luxury Travelers are willing to pay more for sustainable experiences as long as its transparent where those funds go to. (Travel West, June 18, 2022)
  • Wellness and wellbeing are the core of all luxury trips (Resonance Consultancy Reveals The 2023 Future of U.S. Luxury Travel Report, 31-3-2022)
  • Ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) want bespoke experiences that are unique, customised with their individual preferences, focused on exclusivity and privacy. Matteo Atti in Gulf Business (May 2023).
  • Searches for Luxury safari lodge were up +110% in April 2024 Pinterest
  • Luxury travel advisors are having a comeback — this time geared toward social media. Air Mail's reporting on a $2 trillion luxury travel market documents traditional advisors and Instagram/TikTok creators converging, with each side borrowing the other's playbook: advisors using social for distribution, creators getting accredited as advisors. The unresolved question is expertise — viral content sells aspiration, but handling a crisis on a 14-day itinerary still requires the human relationship layer. (Air Mail, May 2026)

Cruise Trends

Cruise has split into expedition, river, and resort-at-sea. The middle — generic mass-market cruise — is losing share to the edges.

  • Expedition Cruising is selling well (Jamie Biesiada in Travel West (June 16 2022)
  • Shorter cruises (less then a week) are getting more demand (Travel Week Asia, April 12, 2023)
  • Every year, more than 20 million passengers take a cruise. (EuroNews, May, 13, 2024)
  • Cruise lines are betting on creators over campaigns. Virgin Voyages put 1,100 TikTok creators on a three-night Bahamas voyage, generating 17,000 pieces of content, 108 million views, and 3.8 million engagements in days — with web traffic from social platforms more than doubling. The brand intentionally mixed travel and non-travel creators across follower counts and niches, betting that scale and audience diversity beat tightly curated influencer relationships. Expect resort, expedition, and river-cruise lines to copy the format. (Skift, April 2026)

Regenerative Travel & Travel Motivations

Regenerative travel — travel that leaves the destination better than it found it — has moved from differentiator to baseline expectation in the luxury and conscious-traveler segments.

  • Regenerative Travel in stead of sustainable travel, the trip actually has to leave the destination better than it was before in stead of trying to reduce it's impact. NZHerald Oct '23
  • Digitising ground and sea transport is a practical infrastructure lever against overtourism. Integrating intercity buses, rail, and ferries into the booking layer — as easily as flights and accommodation — enables travellers to reach off-the-beaten-track destinations, spreading demand and economic benefit away from saturated hotspots. Destinations that invest in this connectivity benefit both from reduced crowding in their centres and from increased spend in their periphery — a regenerative dividend that requires no additional marketing budget. (PhocusWire, April 2026)
  • EU Tourism Ministers formally united on sustainability, resilience, and SME support at their informal meeting under the Cyprus EU Presidency on 17 April 2026. The declaration signals that European tourism policy is now explicitly aligned with regenerative principles — backing smaller operators and embedding resilience into destination governance. For destinations in the VTP network (Nepal, Zeeland, Lokapas), this European policy direction validates the regenerative positioning and may open funding and certification pathways. (Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU, April 2026)
  • Sustainability has shifted from operator-marketing to traveller behaviour. The 2026 round-up of habits travellers are actually adopting — refilling water bottles, choosing rail over short-haul flights, paying tourist taxes without complaint, picking shoulder-season dates, supporting locally-owned operators — signals that the locus of action has moved from supply-side claims to demand-side practice. The marketing implication: trust signals now come from what travellers do, not what hotels promise. (Euronews, April 2026)
  • Borana Conservancy unveils a 10-year strategy for African safari tourism. The Kenyan conservancy is pairing conservation-led tourism with explicit social and environmental commitments — a template for how safari destinations can position themselves on a multi-decade horizon rather than season-by-season. For VTP's Smart Safari work, this is a useful reference point for long-horizon partnership framing. (African Travel and Tourism Association, April 2026)
  • Egypt is modernising its diving and marine-tourism regulations to protect Red Sea ecosystems. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is updating the framework governing diving operators — a destination-level move that links visitor activity directly to marine conservation outcomes. Expect more coastal destinations to follow this pattern as climate pressure on reefs intensifies. (African Travel and Tourism Association, April 2026)
  • Accessible tourism is being reframed as a design discipline, not a compliance checklist. Curtin University's 2026 piece argues that accessibility — physical, sensory, cognitive, financial — should be designed into the experience from the start, not retrofitted. The destinations that build for the broadest range of travellers are also the destinations that grow share-of-wallet from groups travelling with elderly relatives or children. (Curtin University, April 2026)
  • China's 2026 outbound flow is reshuffling. May Day bookings to Southeast Asia have softened as fuel surcharges, rising airfares, and flight cancellations to Bangkok, Phuket, and Kuala Lumpur push travellers toward Japan and Europe — while domestic short-haul absorbs the rest. For destinations in the VTP network, the read is twofold: Southeast Asian operators face a softer summer from one of their largest source markets, and European destinations should expect a stronger Chinese pulse. (Travel Weekly Asia, April 2026 · South China Morning Post, April 2026)
  • Destinations are capping access to protect their most beloved views. Santa Maddalena in the Dolomites is now limiting car access at one of Italy's most photographed viewpoints — a baroque church framed by the Odle peaks — to reduce crowding and encourage a slower, more intentional way of visiting. The move acknowledges that viral social-media exposure can overwhelm a destination's carrying capacity and erode the very beauty that drew visitors in the first place. (Travel + Leisure, May 2026)
  • Overtourism is generating its own media backlash — and the reputational damage travels faster than the crowds. Footage of overcrowded Amalfi Coast streets went viral in May 2026, with Italian social media users describing the crush as "not tourism — it's disgusting." When a destination's identity is built on beauty and intimacy, unmanaged footfall becomes an existential reputational risk, not just a logistics challenge. The lesson for operators: managing crowd perception is now as important as managing crowd numbers. (Fox News Travel, May 2026)
  • 79% of travel advisors report their clients are choosing off-peak travel more frequently — 60% to avoid crowds, 29% for flexibility and value. The sustainability motivation and the experience motivation are converging in a single planning decision: off-peak travel delivers both a quieter destination and a better price. For destination marketers, this is a direct case for shoulder-season content and packaging. (Virtuoso Sustainability Survey 2026, TravelAge West)
  • The top five sustainable tourism priorities travellers rank are: avoiding over-touristed destinations, wildlife conservation and interaction, farm-to-table dining, giving back to local communities, and booking with companies that employ locals. This is a priority order, not a flat checklist — destinations should lead with the top two in their positioning, not bury them. (Virtuoso Sustainability Survey 2026, TravelAge West)
  • Nearly half of travel advisors say firsthand sustainability experiences — educational trips and study tours — are the most effective way for travel partners to demonstrate their credentials. Marketing claims without experiential proof are losing credibility; fam trips with a sustainability lens are now the highest-impact channel for earning advisor trust. (Virtuoso Sustainability Survey 2026, TravelAge West)
  • BBC Travel's 2026 destination list curates for local community impact and authenticity over headline sights. The world's biggest travel broadcaster now ranks where to go by sustainability and benefit to local communities rather than by must-see highlights — mass-market validation that authenticity and giving back have moved to the centre of destination demand. (Tornos News / BBC Travel, 2026)

According to the Mind the Gap, Persado Study (2023), people travel because;

To escape their day-to-day routines (34%), to reconnect with loved ones (25%), and to journey out with friends (25%).

Related reading

About this page

At Value Through Passion we read travel trends through a beauty and passion lens — looking at the shifts in what travellers value, how they spend, behave, and what makes them truly happy during their travels.

This is our living synthesis. It pulls from industry research (TripAdvisor Trendcast 2026, Virtuoso, Booking.com, Skift, and our own client work) and is refreshed as new signals land in our newsletters. Every statement carries a source link so you can follow the evidence yourself.

If you run a destination, a hotel group, or a travel consultancy, you can use this page two ways: as a scan of where travellers are moving, and as a filter for which trends deserve your operational attention versus your marketing attention. We help clients draw that distinction — contact us if you want that conversation.

New trends are added as they land; stale signals are retired during quarterly reviews. If you spot a trend we've missed, tell us — our research intake is the same one our consulting clients use.