The desire for transcendent, otherworldly experiences will inspire journeys in 2024. Astronomy gatherings, rebranded as “star parties”, are springing up from the US to the UK, and Japan to Ireland. Likewise, new-era festivals from Finland to Australia are celebrating seasonal solstices. Along with record crowds flocking to Britain’s Stonehenge, it illustrates Gen Zers’ rising interest in pagan calendar events.

With consumers looking to weave wellness into every layer of their lives, some 64% of global travellers would welcome more health and wellness facilities at airports (Airport Dimensions, 2023). Change is coming both airside and on board – as predicted in Evolving the Airport. In the US, United Airlines’ new Reset Suites are kitted out with Therabody’s wellness tech.

International hotel chain Hilton declared 2024 “The Year of the Great Recharge”, after its latest global survey revealed rest and relaxation as consumers’ greatest motivation for travelling (see Key Stats). Sleep tourism is one (important) facet of this, but more widely, there’s traction in providing respite from hyperstimulated modern lifestyles and focusing on restorative analogue activities.

More than two-thirds of global travellers say healthy food and beverage options are important to them during trips (SSP, 2023). Adopting a food-as-medicine approach rather than focusing on restrictive diets, smart hospitality brands will nourish wellness-conscious guests with microbiome-boosting menus, functional foods and supplements. Even the minibar is on a health kick.

Savvy brands are awakening to the synergy between wildlife watching and mindfulness – especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Misty Belles, vice president of global public relations at global travel advisers’ network Virtuoso, told Stylus: “There’s a cross-section of conservation, an exploration of nature in its most primal state and overall spiritual wellbeing that one can only experience through a safari.”

Wellness pursuits that are social, gleeful or even downright silly can provide individuals some much-needed light relief from the permacrisis. Consider the tree-climbing adventures offered by Six Senses Douro Valley in Portugal, as well as Scotland’s Gleneagles, or “handstand workshops under the stars” with an ex-gymnast – part of British start-up Fortis Escapes’ inaugural luxury fitness retreat in Morocco.