More travellers are choosing to take part in gruelling, multi-day fitness challenges, including ultra-marathons, long-distance open water swim events, and Ironman triathlons. Travel brands are stepping in to offer pre-race prep and post-race recovery support for participants, while others are creating their own multi-day endurance challenges. For more on these extreme leisure pursuits, see our Look Ahead theme Leisure on the Edge.

German endurance fitness race Hyrox is predicted to see up to 1.5 million participants across 40+ global events between 2025–26 (Hyrox, 2025). This rising interest has spawned its own travel movement of both participants and supporters, with enthusiasts spending their vacation time travelling to Hyrox events around the world. Concurrently, hospitality and leisure operators are creating training retreats that incorporate challenging Hyrox-style workout sessions.

Hotels are zeroing in on optimising physical wellbeing by providing world-class fitness facilities, expert coaching in a broad range of physical disciplines, and private in-room workout programming. Some of these establishments are also upgrading their racquet sport facilities to provide enthusiasts with the opportunity to up their game in luxurious and scenic settings.

A raft of alternative high-octane winter sports are becoming more popular with tourists thanks to greater accessibility, exposure via events like the Winter Olympics, and the impact of climate change on more traditional options like alpine skiing and snowboarding. This includes sports such as ice climbing, SkiMo and skijoring.