Data from the world’s leading hotel groups, travel firms and trend forecasters suggests that 2026 will be the year of quiet escapes, algorithm-shaped itineraries, ultra-personalised retreats and a return to slower, more intentional travel.
Number crunchers, behaviouralists and travel firms have been compiling their data over the last few months to assess where they think the travel industry is heading. From “coolcations” – a trend that emerged a few years ago to become one of the Collins Dictionary words of the year – to
“flashpacking”, a term used to denote upscale backpacking, annual travel trends tend to come with an awkward portmanteau-style word and almost always reflect how we live – or how we want to live.
We’ve sifted through the best of the year’s travel predictions, made-up words and all. These are the top trends on the horizon for 2026.
1. Quiet over everything
One trend is set to dominate next year: “quietcations”. Also called Hushpitality, this movement centres on comfort, silence and finding a way to escape the compounding stresses of modern life. With our always-on digital culture colliding with an endless rollcall of global events reaching us in real time, it’s no surprise that many of us are looking to disconnect. Hector Hughes, co-founder of Unplugged, a series of digital detox cabins in the UK, has been watching the trend take shape.
“When we first started Unplugged in 2020, digital detoxing and analogue living was pretty much unheard of,” he says. “Now, over half of our guests cite burnout and screen fatigue as their main motivation for booking.”