It’s February, which means one thing in the travel industry: trend reports season is finally coming to an end.
- “10 Travel Trends for 2026.”
- “What AI Means for Airlines.”
- “The Year of (insert you favorite buzzword here).”
You’ve seen them. You’ll probably forget most of them by March (if not already).
In fact, a few weeks ago, we analyzed 62 different 2026 travel trend reports, extracting more than 500 individual trends that were supposedly “mission-critical” for the year ahead.
And let’s be honest: If 500 different trends are meant to define travel in 2026, that tells you something about the usefulness of the exercise. At some point, trend forecasting becomes less about clarity and more about creativity.
- Who comes up with the catchiest label?
- Who coins the most memorable phrase?
- Who packages the familiar in the most original way?
That doesn’t mean trend analysis is useless. Far from it. But it does raise a very practical question: How is anyone supposed to prioritize, decide, or act on 500 trends?
So this year, we decided not to add another trend list to the pile. Instead, we decided to publish something bolder: our wishes for 2026. Why wishes? Because wishes are arguably harder to define than trend predictions.
- They force you to take a stance on what should happen.
- What the industry is capable of, but hasn’t delivered yet.
- Where the gap between potential and reality has become… uncomfortable.
Some of these wishes may remain wishes (when we look back at them at the end of the year). But maybe calling them out publicly helps move the conversation (and the collaboration) forward. Without further ado, here are our 10 wishes for travel in 2026.
The full report can be downloaded here.
