Travel Snapshot for 2026: World Travel Market

• Addressing Global Instability: Speakers highlighted how geopolitical unrest can have a profound effect on travellers’ destination choices. The US was identified as a key example, with inbound arrivals set to decrease by 6% in 2025, according to the WTM Global Travel Report. This has largely been spurred by traveller sentiment in response to some of the country’s economic and political policies. Barry Rogers, director of destination strategy at Greece-based placemaking and marketing agency Toposophy, emphasised that political events don’t need to be violent or catastrophic to shake travellers’ confidence.
  
  
• Adapting to AI: How people research travel is being transformed by AI, with 26% of Gen Zers and millennials already relying on AI-informed trip planning, according to Dave Goodger, US-based travel data forecaster Tourism Economics Managing Director EMEA. Throughout the conference, speakers emphasised the importance of understanding how AI platforms interact with websites so that travel brands aren’t left behind in AI search.
  
  According to Uli Pillau, founder of Munich-based property management system Apaleo, developments to watch are AI platforms that can book travel experiences – such as accommodation – directly and intermediary technology that will serve as a translator between travel websites and AI tools. See Future Travel Summit 2025 for more insights on how AI is shaking up the sector.

• Alternating Accommodations: The future of accommodation was identified by Tarique Khatri, chief commercial officer at Saudi Arabian travel company Almosafer, as a “kind of hybrid model” that combines the properties of traditional hotels with those of alternative stays, such as cabins or apartments.
  
  Khatri emphasised that travellers’ preference for accommodation type “boils down to the purpose of travel”. To respond to diverse and dynamic travel groups and motivations, traditional hotels should learn from alternative models and present more flexible options – for instance, by providing modular rooms that cater for the expanded needs of multigenerational families, as well as hotels that offer luxury long-term stays alongside more budget-friendly accommodation.
  
  
• The New Face of All-Inclusive: Once perceived negatively by many monied travellers, all-inclusive is the “new luxury”, according to Panos Almyrantis, chief growth and commercial officer at Greek luxury resort chain Ella Resorts and president of the European Hotel Managers Association. US-headquartered hotel giant Hilton’s vice president of all-inclusive and resort strategy Nicole Tilzer agreed: “What the luxury guest is looking for is ease, that frictionless travel, and all-inclusive is perfect for that – maybe we call it something different so that it doesn’t have any negative connotations – but it’s all about [travellers] not having to do much [planning].”
  
  Tilzer also underscored that, today, all-inclusive is all about finding the balance between onsite and offsite experiences. Visitors “don’t want to be stuck” at the hotel, they want to engage with the culture of the destination, which creates opportunities to partner with local businesses and tourism boards. In the past, destinations may have had an unfavourable view of the economic effects of all-inclusive packages, but consumer interest in authentic experiences is a driver of local economic stimulation, Tilzer suggested.

• Stewarding Sustainability: Although sustainability has been on the agenda for years, Tina O’Dwyer, founder of Ireland’s sustainable tourism consultancy The Tourism Space, argued that the industry is still in "the navigation era" between earlier passive models and active stewardship that puts nourishing local nature and communities first.
  
  Alongside this, Jane McFadzean, senior director of global sustainability at Singapore-headquartered online travel agency Trip.com, explained that to achieve their sustainability goals, travellers – of whom only 57% are actively travelling sustainably, despite 92% saying they would prefer to do so – need to be better informed about the options available (Trip.com, 2024). According to Iain Powell, chief commercial officer at Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten, there’s a prevailing perception among travellers that experiences marketed as sustainable are inherently more expensive and of lower quality.
  
  Advocating for community tourism, Tricia Schers, director of partnerships and development at Toronto-headquartered nonprofit Planeterra, challenged the prevalent view that working with local communities should count as a charity donation rather than act as a sustainable business partnership.

For more on tech’s increasingly important role in travel, see Algorithmic Expeditions and Travel & Tech. Meanwhile, Skift Global Forum 2025 offers further perspectives on the present and future of travel.