Travel Experiences and Activity Trends
- 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)
- 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).
- 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.
- Space Tourism - Virgin Galactic Organizes one space flight per quarter (Yahoo Finance March 2024)
Using tech during travel experiences
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
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
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.
- 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
Cruise Trends
- 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)
- 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
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%).