One should approach the task of forecasting travel trends with some humility. For one thing, there’s the utter unknowability of the future, which is not only a central fact of the human condition but a big reason why it’s so hard to plan a vacation.
Let’s say the smart set heads off to Portugal (as they did in 2023). Then, the Tik-Tokers descend on it with all their needy, ignorant misbehavior, and by the time you get there, the whole vibe at Belem Tower is wrecked.
Let’s say you block a layover in San Francisco because you hear it’s coming back, but all of a sudden, luxury magazines send you packing your bags in Detroit. The Middle East proclaimed an emerging destiny on October 4 (it did) and on October 7 all hell broke loose.
Traveling is synonymous with new adventures and it is necessary to know the upcoming places, activities and offers. So let’s jump in the rearview mirror, get on the hood, and take a look at the horizon over 2024 trends.
I spoke to nearly 20 other people whose livelihood depends on their ability to learn about users’ preferences, behaviors, and moods. I’ve interviewed industry analysts, consultants, tour operators, PR professionals, journalists, and other diverse people who seem to make a living for me (I need this job).
And I’ve got some guidance for the year ahead.
So place your trays in a closed, upright position, store your private pieces under the seat in front of you (say, the Travelpro Maxlite five is that popular in the 23?), and let’s get to 2024 on time.
But keep your seat belt securely fastened, even after the captain has turned off the seat belt signal. We expect some turbulence.
In 2024, Venice, Italy, will become the first city in the world to implement a fee just to enter. The crowds during peak season swamp the city of canals, creating stifling throngs at St. Mark’s, long lines at restaurants, and grumpy gondoliers. The mayor of Venice says the new 5-euro charge is an attempt to “protect the city from mass tourism.”
Almost everyone I’ve spoken to has factored the effect of overtourism into their 2024 travel forecasts. The trend reached an inflection point in 2023, driven in part by a wave of post-pandemic “revenge trips. “The quest to make up for lost time before truly retiring also contributed.
After COVID, “people learned that life is short, and if I don’t do it now, when?” said David Swanson, editor for more than 30 years.
“People have learned that life is short, and if I don’t do it now, when?
Speaking of trends, social media influencers are also to blame for excessive visits. Tik Tokers create thousands of videos about iconic tourist spots. His hordes of fans soon do the same with the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the ruins of Machu Picchu.
In response to all of this, some destinations are upping fees or blocking access. A Vermont town closed a road after influencers — some of whom brought portable wardrobe changing rooms — overran one of the state’s most popular leaf-peeping spots. They trampled vegetation and even defecated in the woods.
Three national parks (Glacier, Arches, and Rocky Mountain) will introduce timed passes in 2024.
Vivek Neb, managing director of tourism at consultancy Escalent, says some destinations prone to overtourism approve fewer tourist visas. They also micro-market to the wealthiest to keep their profits high as visitor numbers dwindle.
Meanwhile, Swanson is skeptical that Venice’s 5-euro fee will do much good. “Why is admission to one of the world’s greatest and most endangered architectural miracles priced less than a bus ride?” he asks. Swanson would up it to 100 euros for a week-long pass.
Luckily, every trend carries the seeds of its counter-trend.
And for the first time, American Express’s annual Trending Destinations report focuses not on the hottest, trendiest and trendiest places, but on places to go.
Are you thinking of Sapporo, Japan? Amex suggests Niseko, the least visited. Are you thinking of going to Sedona? No, go to Santa Fe.
Expedia is also trending and offers 2024 travelers the following “tricked” sites (they borrow the term “cheat” from a popular Tik Tok hashtag): Taipei, Taiwan, from Seoul, South Korea; Paros, Greece, from Santorini; Perth, Australia, from Sydney.
Some 2024 travelers are already getting ahead of trend-spotters. At travelinsurance.com, an online broker of travel insurance policies, company co-founder Stan Sandberg says he’s already seeing off-the-beaten-path travel increasing for 2024, with bookings to 25 more countries than last year. Andorra, Palau, and Grenada are newly popular.
Other off-the-beaten-path locations cited through our sources:
The bad news is that in 2024 we shouldn’t expect any relief from the trend of airlines offering very low fares and then charging you for a seat or carrying a carry-on bag.
“People hate sitting in the middle seat,” says Robert Cole, senior hospitality and recreation analyst at Phocuswright, a research firm. “The airlines know that they will pay to avoid this, so they are not going to prevent the collection.
In fact, Cole sees the nickel-and-diming trend spreading to hotels, cruises, and maybe rental cars.
Peter Greenberg, editor of CBS News and host of PBS Travel Detective with Peter Greenberg, explains that fares are a tricky tax game by airlines; Airfares are subject to the 7. 5 percent federal excise tax, which increases prices for passengers. Fares are not imposed, allowing airlines to pocket the most of them in the form of profits.
Greenberg envisions relief in 2024 only in the form of “greater transparency” for higher rates, rather than a reduction.
The advantage of the surcharges is the increased availability of “comfort class” on most airlines: seats with more legroom and the ability to board earlier. “You might pay $19 or $54 more, but for a lot of people, it’s worth it. ” says Everett Potter.
More good news for 2024 is that you’re probably less likely to fall victim to the kind of cancellation nightmares thousands of travelers dealt with in 2022 and early 2023, says Katy Nastro, travel expert for airfare deals service Going.com.
Cancellation rates in 2023 were less than a portion of those in 2022, Nazro says, and the trend is in 2024. “Airlines have made operational innovations and investments” that make “massive and chaotic” cancellation occasions less likely, he said.
Airlines have an economic incentive for this problem, Greenberg says.
“Southwest set the expectation by paying not only for hotels and rental cars for stranded passengers, but meals and things like pet and child care,” he continued. “They and other airlines will feel pressure to do the same in future mass cancellation events.”
When it comes to ticket costs, “costs have normalized” after sharp fluctuations caused by low demand due to the pandemic and massive demand afterwards, says Nastro. Ticket prices are at 2006 degrees once adjusted for inflation and Nastro is hopeful for 2024.
Greenberg notes that in the fall of 2023, fares to Europe from U. S. gateways were as low as part of $300 as airlines moved their planes from domestic routes to foreign routes, expanding capacity.
The losers in 2024 are some American cities whose routes have been eliminated. “If you live in Toledo, you may have to go to Detroit to catch a plane,” Greenberg continues.
Many resources have discussed the effects of warming on travel. In particular, it makes some spawns unbearable in summer.
In 2023, tourists in Rome suffered temperatures of up to 107 degrees Fahrenheit. In Greece, officials closed the Acropolis to protect people from the sun. Europe was so hot, they actually named the heatwave Cerberus, which in Greek mythology is the multi-headed Hound of Hell.
Travelers’ plans change.
“I used to struggle to convince consumers to go to Switzerland in the summer,” says Henley Vazquez of Fora Travel. “Now they come by and they love it. “
Several other resources recommend that 2024 may be a smart time to replace latitude.
Of the many emerging and evergreen destinations discussed through others I’ve spoken to, possible options to avoid the summer heat include: Copenhagen (average summer temperature 68-71); Quebec (71-77); Dublin (65-68); Oslo (71-73); Portland, Maine (73-78); and Iceland (a bloodless 50-55).
Meanwhile, Orlando will shine in ’92, Bangkok will be on fire in ’93 and Phoenix in ‘104.
You can incorporate warmth and crowds with a strategic technique into your itinerary, suggests Chantal Gouveia of Kensington Tours. “Change the position and the timing,” she says. Choose a secondary destination from the crowds and stop at a time other than summer to get relief from the harsh temperatures.
You had to know this one was coming. Tourism around pickleball — the wildly popular sport that mixes ping-pong and tennis — is a thing for 2024.
Courts are proliferating at resorts, hotels, and cruise ships (including river cruises). Classes and tournaments are planned for guests.
It may seem like an April Fool’s joke, but one hotel, the Tryall Club in Montego Bay, Jamaica, has a pickleball concierge. The member will provide paddles, balls, and sportswear, help you book a court or lesson, and coordinate with the chef to provide you with a pickleball meal after the game.
Everett Potter was in Italy’s Lake Como region in October. “I couldn’t imagine how full it was,” he says. I didn’t get elbowed in the eye when someone took a selfie, but it was almost as bad. “
Deals during shoulder season — the months before and after high season, long preferred by bargain-seekers and travelers without school-age kids — have been “eradicated” in many destinations, he says.
Vazquez agrees that by 2024, off-season discounts will disappear as occupancy rates rise in what were off-peak months.
According to Hilton’s latest Travel Trends Report, food reporting is the most sensible priority for more than a portion of travelers. Of those travelers, 86% are looking for original local or regional cuisine.
The problem is that authentic cuisine drawn from local ingredients by a chef who knows the culture isn’t easy to find. Online reviews take you only so far.
The James Beard Foundation makes it easy to find independent, local, chef-led institutions across the country. His 2023 awards included restaurants in Kansas City, Missouri; Madison, Wisconsin; and Boise, Idaho. (Find nominees and winners in any city through the awards search feature on their website. )
“What’s happening right now in each and every little component of this country is very exciting,” says Kris Moon, president of the Beard Foundation. He cites the small town of Bentonville, Arkansas, in the Ozarks, a booming tourist destination that recently saw 3 Beard semifinalists.
Many destinations create gastronomic “trails” to identify and savor the local cuisine. And in 2024, there will be more food trails than ever before. There’s the Salsa Trail in Arizona, the Chocolate Trail in Connecticut, and the A to Z Foodie. Trail in Iowa.
In 2024, be among the first travelers to hike the Ground Steak Trail in Surry, North Carolina.
For more than 20 years, airlines, destinations, hotels, and tour operators have been cleaning up their operations to reduce their impact on the environment. Booking. com and Expedia display icons that indicate a property’s sustainability performance. They offer insights into airline green space, but will they really influence travelers’ potential options in 2024?
“I see those notes that this flight would have lower emissions than this one,” says David Swanson. “I’ve never made a resolution about it. “
If eco-friendly travel sounds a little old-fashioned and serious, it doesn’t have to be. One of Henley Vazquez’s favorites is 1 Hotel Group, which owns what it calls “trendy, trendy” hotels in places like South Beach and West Hollywood. Many of the highlights of the sustainability checklist should also be taken into account.
Terika Haynes, discoverer of Dynamite Travel, a small luxury company, loves tiny homes like Rancho Santana in Nicaragua. It offers the same villas and spas as always, in addition to the gastronomic reports discovered in luxury homes. The hotel serves its own organic farm, composts leftovers to feed the garden, and uses local artisans to build furniture and finishes.
Perhaps the biggest impact you can have this year, regardless of where you travel, comes from doing small things likely to lead to the best experiences anyway.
“By going to owned and operated restaurants, your cash directly supports families and small businesses,” says Kaitlyn Brajcich, Senior Director of Communications and Training at Sustainable Travel International.
“You can create potential options that allow your money to go directly to local communities,” he continues. But it’s nothing. The United Nations Tourism Organization reports that in the Caribbean less than 20% of dollars remain in local economies.
The peak year for births in the middle of the century was 1957, which means that most baby boomers will be around 67 years old in 2024. That’s old enough for them to have children and for their children to have children. young people. So, the resources say that multigenerational, where the extended and messy family combines, is booming.
Patty Monahan, founder of Our Whole Village, says the post-pandemic trend of multigenerational bookings extends to bookings by 2024. The key to a smart multigenerational journey, he says, is to “balance the multiple desires and interests” of teams ranging from grandparents to grandchildren.
Villas, cruise ships, ranches or resorts where you have a “home base” and can access a diversity of activities look good, he says. Grandparents teach culinary elegance while grandchildren and parents go rafting, for example. “You don’t have to do it each and every one of you together, each and every day. “
This plays out across all value points.
The family “makes us reconsider what ‘luxury’ means,” says Marisa Ship of Kensington Tours, which creates custom trips for high-end people. For families, it’s “less about five-star accommodation and more about helping to make memories than staying with them forever,” he says.
Kensington has a partnership with Ancestry. com, which deepens the probabilities of kinship across generations. Even before you decide on a destination, you can work with a genealogist to identify your ancestors and plan a stopover in the places that bring them together. It could include cemeteries, churches, family homes, or other heritage sites.
“If you want to go to the bar where your grandfather used to drink beer, we can do that,” Ship says.
Electric motorcycles, regular motorcycles with small electric motors that provide smooth assistance, will enter the mainstream in 2024. For example, they attract motorcyclists beyond the spandex and bulky shoe crowds that have been at the center of the market for years. These trips are especially popular with drivers over the age of 50 who are not properly “motorcyclists. “
“We electric motorcycles have attracted new active commuters who in the past were reluctant to engage in a motorcycle vacation,” says Bob Greeneisen, deputy chief operating officer of Backroads, a premium motorcycle travel company. Backroads began its transition to electric motorcycles in 2013 with 150 motorcycles and enters 2024 with a fleet of 4,500. Cycling company VBT says electric motorcycles now make up “a vast majority” of its fleet.
E-bikes are compatible with unexpected niches. On all of its luxury Rhine and Danube tours, Scenic Cruises offers standalone or guided e-bikes, allowing tours to castles, vineyards, and small towns that supply fresh air and require no van rides.
Also expect electric features in your next city, as urban motorcycle suppliers rush to transition to electric motorcycles. In San Antonio, I recently spent a glorious half day touring the 4 Spanish missions along a well-paved 10-mile trail on an electric motorcycle and didn’t break a sweat.
We know you’re hoping to hear that high-speed rail will finally be coming to America in 2024.
Amtrak will introduce next-generation bullet trains along its DC-Boston Acela route. The new trains are exactly 10 miles per hour faster (up to 160 miles per hour) than the old ones. But its detached tracks prevent trains from achieving that. velocity.
Some upcoming adjustments for the national railway in 2024:
As states and countries continue to legalize recreational cannabis, cannabis-related tourism is expected to grow by 2024. Travel Agent Central reports that 29% of travelers are interested in cannabis-related travel.
Typical marijuana tourism options include “bud and breakfast” visits and “high-dining” venues. One cannabis tourism agency, Cannabis Tours, can book you in a “420-friendly hotel” (the number is a kind of in-joke among smokers with its provenance uncertain) and related activities, like painting watercolors while high.
The Washington Post has put together some tips for budding travelers. Visit only authorized dispensaries, bring cash, and inquire about the impact individual products can offer.
You’ve probably heard of the wave of artificial intelligence (or A. I. ) generated guides. Some are hysterically bad.
A Washington, D. C. , guidebook, known through Washingtonian magazine, features a photograph of the construction of the Sacramento Capitol on the cover. It directs kayakers to Rock Creek Lake, which doesn’t exist. He recommends a trip to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the National Arboretum. located 3 miles from the current location of the monument on the National Mall.
This suggests that 2024 may be a smart year to get recommendations from trusted publishing brands (could we introduce TravelAwaits?Because AI didn’t write that story. )
But A.I. is likely to improve some consumer experiences for travelers very soon, says Vivek Neb. By consuming vast amounts of data about both you and the world, A.I.-powered tools will eventually become “like your friend who knows you and can tell you places you might like.”
Lydia Schrandt, president of the Society of American Travel Writers with a master’s in data science, says she’d be “very surprised” if by the end of 2024 most online travel companies weren’t doing things like automatically “spinning up personalized itineraries” via A.I.
“The more data they have about their preferences, the more they can customize an itinerary based on what they are likely to need to do,” he says.
Phocuswright’s Robert Cole sees excellent prospects for AI. to’s visitor service. For example, if your flight is delayed and you are at risk of being left without a connection, you will now have to call or wait in line. “But with AI, airlines can be proactive,” he says. You simply receive a text message that you have been moved to a later connecting flight. Expect incremental progress in this direction in 2024, he says.