It is only a second quarter into 2024 and new travelling trends have been emerging as people seek more meaningful experiences – whether it is relating to sustainability or human connections with other cultures, and a desire to learn about the world around us, from the earth’s flora and fauna to the stars and planets in the sky, or simply improve how they experience their music heroes or heroines.
Below are travel trends we’re feeling right now:
Adapting to Climate Change with Cool-Cationing
This is a new trend that may not appeal to summer or warm climate lovers. Europe in recent times been experiencing record-breaking high temperatures, and it is only a matter of time for travellers to consider visiting colder and more moderate climates. This has been seen in the increase of northern destinations such as Finland, Norway, Iceland and Scotland by travellers.
According to the Virtuoso 2024 Luxe Report, 82% of travellers researching and looking to book trips to destinations with moderate climates in 2024. The reality about these holiday spots and destinations being less crowded makes them even more appealing.
The Digital Nomad
Digital nomadism is a new trend for people who can work from anywhere, so long as they have their computer, tablets or phones and a good internet connection. Digital nomads get the opportunity to live and work in a country with a lower cost of living than the home country of their employers. Thus, leading them to build experience equity. Over forty countries now issue digital nomad visas that permit visitors to stay and work remotely from there for six months, 12 months or even longer. Some countries provide other benefits, like tax exceptions, with a digital nomad visa. The primary requirement for this visa includes the visitor having sufficient funds to support themselves (and their families, if needed) while working for a company outside the one issuing the visa.
Countries such as Japan, Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Panama, Cayman Islands, etc., are digital nomad destinations.
Read more about this on 10 Digital Nomad Hotspots
Concert and Festival Travel
Over 3.7 million people travelled more than 100 miles to watch Taylor Swift perform on the Eras Tour in 2023. Also, Beyoncé fans also went to Europe for better deals and seats to watch her Renaissance Tour. Taylor and other big names such as Drake, the Rolling Stones, Bad Bunny, Madonna and Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, Madonna, Bad Bunny, and the Rolling Stones are also expected to go on tour this year. More concert travellers (especially Swifties) are expected on the road in 2024.
Sustainable Tourism
A crucial travelling trend currently gaining momentum is what is called eco-tourism, with 69% of tourists seeking sustainable travel. This type of travel trend–common in younger generations with concern for global warming and climate change–allows travellers to make a positive difference by finding purpose and creating meaningful experiences within local communities at their destinations. Examples of this type of travel trend include making trips using smaller carbon footprints with boats or trains, trips to wildlife conservation areas, and learning sustainable crafts.
Solo Travel
Solo travel is another emerging travel trend as recent surveys say 68% of travellers view themselves as ‘independent’ travellers, and that life transitions are big drivers of this trend. With more younger people focusing on life goals beyond traditional social expectations such as settling down and starting a family, an increase in the number of single young people travelling solo will be seen. Other motivations for the rise of the solo travel trend include personal growth, the need to feel independent (or not tethered) and meeting new people
Some travel companies are tilting towards specialising in connecting people for adventures of a lifetime, while they roll back the financial obstacles of single supplements.
DNA Pilgrimages or Ancestry Trips
According to Ancestry, a genealogy site, their servers receive over one billion searches per month, while their rival, Family Search, had more than 200 million readers in 2022. The 2020 pandemic, seemed to gift everyone time to research their personal history and lineage. Now the world is back to its daily grind and travel is no longer restricted, it is only a natural trend for folks to visit and explore their newly discovered heritage in person.
Cazenove and Lloyd noticed this upswing in the so-called ancestry trips or DNA pilgrimages trend. These are trips specially designed to enable travellers to discover more about the people and places they have come from. The unique activities have been known to include surprise lunch meetings with the former colleagues of a traveller’s late relations, armed with photos.
Menopause Retreats
A new trend for the ladies is the menopause retreat. This stage begins with perimenopause (the natural transition of a woman’s body before menopause) and ends with the end of years of human reproduction called menopause. This transition is enough for relaxation among women. This transition occurs at different ages in women–sometimes it starts in the mid-30s and could be late as in the mid to late 40s (sometimes even further down to early to the mid-50s). Whichever age it may begin, it does come with symptoms like hot flashes, sleep irregularity, and mood changes. Menopause Retreats are a recent wellness trend designed to support women undergoing this transition. It is another form of self-care.
Silent Travel
The Silent Travel trend is one where the traveller disconnects from all the noise and chaos of their regular degular shemgular day-to-day lives. By unpluging from all devices, social media and instant messengers, travellers experience the beauty and serenity of nature by travelling through a country (or more) where they don’t speak or understand the native language. The aim of silent travel (like solo travel) is to rediscover oneself and treat the self to indulge in experiences like fine dining, spa treatments, or even waking up without an alarm to bring the brightness and colour back to the skin.
Conclusion
The interesting thing about these travelling trends is that they can be combined to get the maximum benefits of your travels and destinations. Silent travel can be combined with solo travelling if your day-to-day activities doesn’t appeal to you anymore. Menopause retreats can also be combined with silent travel to fully relax and enjoy the transformation in your new body.
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