It’s that time of the year again.
Year-end reflections, new years resolutions, and trend predictions dominate (social) media.
Some are crap, while others are valuable gems.
No one really has time to read them all.
We have read 38 trend reports (and counting) that speculate about the future of travel, so you don’t have to!
Here’s our selection of the 10 (+1) most inspiring and thoughtful pieces worth your time (in no specific order):
Skift Travel Megatrends 2023
For years, Skift’s Megatrends series has been a must-read. It has great storytelling and is visually appealing. The outlook always feels fresh and bold. Plus, the packaging gets better every year. Nobody puts as much effort into their annual trend report as Skift. The only thing we would hope for is more data to back things up, but hey, you can’t have it all. Read here.
edreams Odigeo – A year in Travel 2022
As the name spells out, this is more of a review of what happened last year than an outlook of what’s to come in 2023. Still, this report is insightful as the interactive website version of the content is our data-driven storytelling favorite of the year. Read here.
Phocuswire – Top Travel Industry Predictions
This one features a broad collection of predictions by industry leaders across the travel sector. It’s interesting to hear about different perspectives from people who have actual skin in the game. Unfortunately, the claims feel rather clean and PR-vetted, which doesn’t bring any major surprises or contrarian predictions to light. Read here.
Skift – Bold Travel Industry Predictions for 2023
Another piece from the Skift team, these fun and quick-to-read “envelope-pushing prognostications” showcase their boldest predictions, ones that stretch their imaginations on what could conceivably unfold in the new year. We support asking “What if” more often. Read here.
Amadeus Travel Trends 2023
A comprehensive report that predicts travel is set to see significant changes in 2023 with a FinTech revolution and luggage-lite trips set to top the agenda. However, it’s good enough to skim through Amadeus’ executive summary to understand the gist of the report.
Booking.com’s Travel Predictions 2023 & Creative Reimagination of Travel
Booking.com breaks its 2023 outlook into two different reports worth checking out. We particularly like its data-heavy focus. However, most of the evidence comes from the company’s own user surveys, which always need to be taken with a grain of salt. Read here and here.
Expedia’s 2023 Travel Trends Report & Traveler Value Index 2023
Anything Booking.com can do, Expedia believes it can as well. Unfortunately, its Travel Trends Report appears to be more self-marketing than anything else, mostly highlighting its corporate sponsors. The report’s title “The No-Normal” could have provided a great storyline for the report. With this said, the Traveler Value Index 2023 report is great. Take a read right here and here.
CNTraveler’s The Biggest Travel Trends
This is an inspiring collection of 18 travel trends that go beyond ubiquitous buzzwords. Don’t expect much research to support the company’s predictions either. However, the power of data to predict what’s going to happen in the future is limited anyways. Instead, trends like psychedelic retreats and adaptogenic menus to flat-pack hotels and electric road trips make us excited about what’s to come in 2023. Read here.
Forbes – Embracing the World Travel Trends report 2023
Similar to CNTraveler, Forbes put together an enjoyable series of articles that make us want to travel right away! Plus, it’s a meta-report taking insights from various external sources. This approach usually provides for a more balanced and comprehensive view of how the future of travel might evolve. Here are Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Airbnb – Top destination 2022 & 2023 travel trends
Airbnb’s 2023 trend essay is laser-focused on the most popular destinations with little insight into changing consumer attitudes. However, we still like it as the takeaways and lists are based on the actual booking behavior of millions of Airbnb guests over the past year. Read here.
So, this was it.
Our top-10 selection of the best travel-trend reports.
Oh, and before we forget.
We created our own report in December, in case you haven’t read it already.
Feel free to let us know how you would describe it in a three-liner.
We’re good at taking feedback—so hit us with some radical candor!
