Today's travel trends reflect where persons are traveling, who they’re traveling with, and what they need to do on a visit.
“People are taking more trips and talking about it with their friends,” said Randy Yaroch, CEO and owner of The Travel Society in Greenwood Village. “Then when you add social media to the mix, it really emphasizes the way people decide where to travel next.”
Knowing what the trends are will be reassuring and provoking – resembling for ladies traveling alone – or possibly lead to creating different decisions – resembling deciding to avoid traditional Western European favorites due to the crowds.
Yaroch's Travel Society is a member of Virtuoso, a world network of agencies specializing in luxury and experiential travel with 1000’s of travel advisors. A travel advisor is comparable to the travel agents of the past, but offers more advice and insight.
“Travel agents were just taking orders, but in today's world they have become professional advisors, more like advisors who exclusively curate travel itineraries,” Yaroch explained. While travel advisors typically work with premium to ultra-luxury clients, Yaroch says they may also assist with more basic trips like booking an all-inclusive package and transportation to and from a resort.
When working with clients, Yaroch and his team concentrate to trends and consider how this information will be used to offer their clients the most effective trip possible.
Virtuoso recently published a travel trends report and uncovered some interesting insights:
- Domestic travel dominates in fall 2024, but international travel continues to interrupt records: Canada saw a 168% year-over-year increase and Japan saw a 160% increase.
- In some hotspots, the weather is cooling down a bit, so this fall might be the best time to travel to Napa, California. Amsterdam or Taormina, Sicily.
- Interest in the vacation or “festive” season continues to see interest in Mexico, Hawaii, Anguilla and Costa Rica, with countries resembling St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic and Grenada seeing a double to triple increase. Although Maui, Hawaii saw a decline in travelers following the devastating fires in 2023, there’s a 23% increase in fall bookings and a 32% increase for the vacation season.
- These ultra-luxury travelers search for expedition cruises, exotic destinations like Fiji or Thailand, and African safaris. This group is motivated to travel for celebrations and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
- Have you heard of “coolcations”? According to Virtuoso, it is a trend of visiting colder climates in the summertime (think Canada or Northern Europe), which saw a 44% increase. Traditionally warmer places like Greece saw a really slight decline in visitor numbers.
- While women traveling alone will not be a brand new trend, each Virtuoso and Yaroch have recognized it and noted that it has spread from baby boomers to all generations. “They are looking for like-minded people to travel with,” Yaroch said. “They travel to all continents and seek adventure travel or gentle adventures such as expedition cruises.”
- It's not only that folks need to travel off the beaten path, but additionally they attempt to avoid places that suffer from overtourism. This means they seek travel within the “off season” or off-peak, for instance traveling to South America as an alternative of Europe. “Service will be better in the off-season and prices will go down,” Yaroch said.
- Although Instagram and other social media platforms can have an influence on travelers, Virtuoso's report found “a notable shift from a focus on a travel to-do list to an emphasis on feelings while traveling,” they noted found that 77% of travelers prioritize curiosity and exploration.
Closer to home, the Colorado Tourism Office commissions a report yearly and learned that there was a rise in visitors to Colorado in 2023 with 93.3 million visitors – a 4% increase from 2022. Other highlights included:
- 38% of holiday makers to Colorado in 2023 came over family and/or friends, with only 12% citing nature as the first purpose of their trip.
- However, 60% of holiday makers said that outdoor activities were crucial activity (if not their purpose), 58% entertainment, 40% culture and 30% sport. Surprisingly, shopping was a top activity at 23% versus mountain climbing/backpacking at 16%.
- The overwhelming majority of holiday makers returned – 85% of overnight guests were repeat visitors in 2023 and 62% visited within the last 12 months.
Their report doesn't show which specific cities or towns are seeing more visitors, but Dean Runyan Associates' annual report “The Economic Impact of Travel in Colorado” offers some insight: Denver saw the best spending, up 4.8%.
“Travellers choose Denver because it offers the best of both worlds,” said Justin Bresler, vp and chief marketing officer at Visit Denver. “The city is an urban destination in its own right, and the appeal of all there is to do in the nearby Rocky Mountains makes us an even more compelling choice.”
Originally published:
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