Booking.com recently released its nine predictions for travel trends in 2025.
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If their predictions are correct, travelers are going to be bucking traditions in the coming years.
According to Booking.com Senior Vice President Arjan Dijk, “In 2025, travelers will be using trips to transform themselves, their relationships and ultimately the world around them.”
Sounds like a pretty high charge for the bachelorette trips to Nashville of yore, but I think that’s the point—
Travel is changing rapidly.
Not just how we travel, but why we want to hit the road and what we expect out of the experience.
Think you can name a few of the biggest trends that could take off next year? Let’s explore the predictions from Booking.com.
Travel trend predictions for 2025
Star-bathing & Noctourism
Nocturism is travel that focuses on dark skies and cooler temperatures, including cool-cations. The ‘noc’ comes from ‘nocturnal’ and includes activities like stargazing.
The idea is that travelers are forgoing sunny and warm destinations in search of cooler climates and lower temperatures. As global daytime temperatures rise, this trend is sure to see more growth in the coming decades—not just in 2025.
Multigenerational travel
This just in: According to Booking.com, travelers and parents alike would rather funnel their savings toward multigenerational trips instead of passing down inheritance money. (My mind is officially blown.)
There’s a strong generational focus here, as the study from Booking has found that Baby Boomers are going to look to alleviate the cost of living crisis by funding some of next year’s family vacations.
Data-driven & AI-based travel
In case you’ve been missing out, AI is now slowly edging into the travel agent and travel planning industries. AI-powered tools are launching all across the travel world—including Booking.com’s new AI trip planner.
Deep revitalization
There’s a rising interest in retreats of all stripes, from outdoor adventures to wellness retreats to more spiritually-focused escapes.
Deep revitalization, according to the trend report, also covers more physical treatments, including red light therapy, cryogenics, and body vibration treatments.
In fact, 58% of the study’s participants said they would travel just to extend their lifespan and improve their well-being.
Thrifting internationally
It looks like a significant number of travelers are looking to bundle shopping into their trip. Most specifically, they want to thrift and find vintage steals while abroad.
While most are in it for the bargains, some are doing so with the hopes of launching boutiques in the United States. Plus, it’s environmentally friendlier to purchase second-hand clothes.
Vacation begins at the airport
A whole 43% of Gen Z participants in this study stated that airports influence where they fly on vacations. As air travel starts to become more inconvenient, travelers want even more out of their airport experience.
They want a wider array of facilities at the airport—and most airports will be more than willing to expand their offerings to capture more travelers.
Women push men to go on men’s-only vacations
I’ve saved my favorite trend for last—one that shocked me just as much as hearing Baby Boomers are spending inheritance cash on family vacations.
I’m talking about the rise of men’s-only vacations. Given the growing interest in women’s-only retreats, I’m not too flabbergasted. After all, why wouldn’t men be interested in similar adventures?
What got my attention here is that it seems to be women pushing their male partners to go on all-boys retreats. A whopping 56% of participants said they would be persuading their partner to organize and go on an all-guys trip.
Looks like 2025 will be a travel year for the #boys.
