The face of the tourism and travel industry has undergone tremendous changes in the past few years. With the culture of travel bloggers, vloggers, influencers, and backpackers kicking in, traveling are no more limited to summer holidays in the mainstream destinations. Owing a lot of gratitude to the digital world, Instagram and Pinterest are enticing and helping us in making our travel plans. There are many other factors like climate change, political evolution, the mindset of people, visa rules that have waived a path for many travel trends to emerge in the coming years. These trends seem to be afloat in our society for a long time adhering to the love of exploring.
1. Soul searching wellness retreats
Going through a breakup? Got sacked from your job? Looking for a purpose in life?
Taking a trip pretty much solves all the above questions, making traveling no less than a soul searching experience. Transformational travel and wellness retreats have gained popularity since the time people have started investing the time and money for their mental wellness. Cutting off from the worldly affairs, eating the fresh farm produce, indulging in some meditation or power yoga, and promoting spiritual and personal transformation while you are traveling has led to the boom of the wellness tourism market.
2. The road not taken
The concept of under tourism or exploring the lesser-known places and hidden gems rather than going for overcrowded tourist spots is a trend that picked up slowly but is here to last for good. The young generation lives with the zeal of witnessing off beaten paths, people, and palette by moving away from the crowd filled places to avoid over-tourism. This second city travel practice attained popularity as the travelers preferred going out of their comfort zones and wished to bring back a new culture from every trip they returned from. In a society where people are trapped in the digital intricacies and fast-paced schedule, paying yourself a visit to an off beaten destination is a therapy we all deserve.
3. Eco-conscious Travel
We have FINALLY realized that climate change is real and if each of us continues to damage the planet, it will soon be the beginning towards the end of the world. This is where the term eco-conscious traveling became prevalent. Sustainability has become an important aspect of our life and green travel is an important step in the right direction. Now that all of us have become responsible for our carbon footprints, the shift towards sustainability has been initiated not only by travelers but also by airlines, hotels, travel companies, and airports. The zero-waste policy, ban of single-use plastics, technological developments, and more are taking over luxury and wastefulness in 2020 with responsible tourism.
4. Back to the roots
Another unique travel trend that surprisingly has revolted its way up to the list is going back to the roots. Many people are crawling their way back to exploring their ancestral places. We are a generation of curious minds and it is only fair to know, understand, and explore your roots before you go around exploring the world. This trend leads many people to go in the conquest of their genetic links or searching the details of their cultural synergies as well.
5. Digital Detox
Digital detox or Spartan Holidays is an eccentric travel trend that indirectly goes back to the ancient nomadic caveman days. Travelers want to take up their trips as a challenge with either little or no money, one pair of clothing, and a few essentials or skipping on booking hotels altogether. These kinds of travel trends push people to their limits while they try and find themselves by connecting to the surroundings. Hitchhiking, couch surfing, eating out the raw fresh foods from the farm, camping on the roadsides, and more are just a few ways in which people prefer to change their comfortable journey into a minimalist yet challenging one.
6. Pilgrimage Travel
Pilgrimage travels are now becoming a thing not from the standpoint of religion but a spiritual perspective. People from all over the world visit the famous Hindu pilgrimage destination like Tirupathi, Shirdi, Kedarnath, and more to indulge in the culture and understand the ethnicity and heritage of India in a better way. Lumbini in Nepal, Vatican city in Italy, Wittenberg in Germany, and Sri Pada in Sri Lanka host millions of tourists every year who not necessarily have to belong to a particular religion, sect, or a community.
7. Home-Tel Living
It is safe to say that the concept of AirBnbs, homestays, and local rentals have given the luxurious resorts and hotels a run for their money. Most of the travelers opt for home living experiences during their trips to understand the destination in a more intimate manner. The whole home-tel bandwagon started because of the travelers who wished to spend months and months in a city and still wanted to feel at home. Not only is this a cheaper option but also very convenient as you get the whole space to yourself and equipped amenities like modular kitchen, washing machine, Wi-fi, and more. Hybrid homes reach a perfect balance between the five start hospitality of a hotel and the simplicity of being at home.
8. The good old cruise
Talk about luxury vacation on the water. The trend of hipster cruises has stood the test of time and it seems like it is not going anywhere anytime soon. The whole world loves the idea of a lavish room with the ocean view, open-air gym, in-house exotic food, 24/7 entertainment, and open bar, and various other never-ending recreational activities on-boards. Some of the extravagant cruises in the world this year are Regent seven seas cruise, Seabourn, Silversea, Crystal Cruises, Oceania Cruises, and the Cunard. These cruises are designed meticulously to include every little detail that will appeal to the larger crowd irrespective of their age.
9. Insta tourism
Contrary to the digital detox trend, there is the other half of the world who are now deep into the concept of Insta tourism. Be it the popular Bali Swing, the crystal clear water of Maldives, the heavenly Tsong mo lake of Ladakh, the picture-perfect Times Square, or our very own Taj Mahal; you must have saved at least of these pictures on your Instagram of a fellow traveler or a blogger. Instagram and to an extent Pinterest has become the go-to travel guide for millennials while planning their vacations. Everyone has turned their feed into a perfect Travel catalog that anyone can easily make an itinerary from.
10. Music tourism
If you haven’t heard about Tomorrowland from at least one of your peers, you need to make better friends man. Music Tourism is a real thing and thanks to the music-savvy generation today, they will not shy away from crossing countries just to listen to their favorite artist playing live. Starting from the popular Sunburn music festival to NH7 Weekender to Ultra music festival to Ziro festival in Arunachal Pradesh to Hornbill festival at Kohima to Magnetic fields in Rajasthan; there are so many famous music festivals in major tourist places that attract a large number of travelers every year.
Having glanced through the whole write up by now, I am sure you have the urge to plan your next trip immediately. Let us know which travel trend swept you off your feet while you are browsing the hotel and flight bookings.
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