Top 10 Travel Trends for 2025
From Jomo to Set-Jetting, Eoghan Corry, Ireland’s leading travel commentator, shares his expert insights on 2025 travel trends.
It is that time of the year again. The turkey wishbone pulled, the Christmas cracker jokes groaned at, and the business of defining travel trends for 2025 in our ears as predictably as the strains of Auld Lang Syne.
Travel trends tend to come round in cycles. Solo travel is not so much a trend as a necessity with a greater number of participants enduring over-produced experiences. The trend of mixing business and leisure travel has appeared under different names and guises for decades. It is not so much a trend as an attempt by both customers and airlines to blur lines which are sometimes not exactly clearcut in the first place.
The most clearly identifiable trend in travel is the number of surveys to measure trends in travel. What
used to be an anecdotal exercise now has a considerable body of research behind it by large aggregators and travel corporations.
1. America
There is no doubt about this one. Ireland got a 30% increase in capacity and eight new direct
routes across the North Atlantic in 2024, and there are more to follow in 2025, new routes to
Detroit and Nashville and capacity increases from American and Jetblue. The passenger cap at
Dublin airport prevented more extensive growth. Travel to Ireland is booming and Ireland is now
the 15th most important market for USA tourism.
Read: Top 10 American Tours and Road Trips for 2025
2. Goods Getaways
This is from a TikTok trend, holiday makers going in search of treasures they can’t get at home, such as Korean skincare or Moroccan Argan oil, and checking out local supermarkets and grocery shops. The old strategy of exit through the gift shop has not exactly gone away.
Read: Weekend in Marrakesh, Flights & Hotel, €184
3. All Inclusive
All inclusive has also been trending on TikTok and searches on Hotels.com using the ‘all-inclusive’ filter are up by 60%. Having gone out of fashion, a victim of the mundane food and head-melt entertainment of yesteryear, the product has moved on and bookings have soared.
Major chains like Hyatt and Marriott have entered the all-inclusive category. Research shows one-third of Gen Z say that their perception of all-inclusive holidays has changed for the better, and 42pc say that an all-inclusive resort would be their preferred hotel type.
Read: Best All Inclusive Family Holidays for 2025
Read: 10 All Inclusive Holiday Deals for 2025 from €999
4. Hotel Restaurants
Hotel restaurants have long had a bad rep, hence the race to get Stars and Rosettes or even a reputation for prestige food on peer review sites. It seems to be working, guests aren’t just booking rooms, they’re booking tables. Positive reviews about hotel restaurants on TripAdvisor are up by 40%.
A third of travellers say that room service from a famous restaurant in the hotel would make them more likely to book, while 31% say that restaurant tables reserved exclusively for hotel guests would be their top reason.
5. JOMO
FOMO (the fear of missing out) to JOMO (the joy of missing out): don’t fret about what you miss,
in fact, make sure you miss it by heading to beach and mountain destinations. Expedia claims 62%
of travellers say that JOMO Travel reduces stress and anxiety.
In a tumultuous world, Amadeus says that travellers are seeking places with the simplicity they identify with the past, rosy retrospection (or introspection).
6. Natural Wonders
Today’s concert goers and sports enthusiasts are used to flying elsewhere for comfortable seats or cheaper tickets. ‘Seize the moment’ events tourism is a strong long term trend, and was lifted into prominence by Taylor Swift last year.
Natural events have their ringside seats too. Last year’s eclipse sold out hotels, resorts and rural, private holiday homes in their path and set off a wave of travellers going to great lengths to witness natural phenomena, even changing location at the last minute when cloud cover threatened.
The top natural phenomena travellers want to experience is seeing the Northern Lights (61%), followed by geological phenomena like volcanoes, geysers and hot springs (30%).
Read: Best Adventure Holiday Destinations Around the World
7. Set-Jetting
Move over ‘Emily in Paris’, this year is for the Real Housewives of Dubai. Set-Jetting, as we now call film and TV-related tourism, is not as new as some would suggest, as the residents of Cong (Quiet Man 1951) or Dingle (Ryan’s Daughter 1971) can testify. Ireland has done well from Game of Thrones and Star Wars in recent years.
This was an emerging travel behaviour in 2023, and entertainment on screen is still growing as a source of travel inspiration. Two-thirds of travellers say that movies, streaming services and TV shows have influenced their travel choices. Thailand is likely to be the most talked-about tourism destination in 2025, due to season three of popular TV drama The White Lotus being set in Koh Samui.
Read: Guide to Choosing the Best Thai Islands to Visit
8. Solo Travel
Amadeus data says solo leisure travellers are up by 15.6% for its 2023 base and Expedia says that solo travel now makes up 30% of all bookings, as against 53% for couples travel. While solo travellers still get a hard time from single room supplements, travel agents are curating experiences and excursions for smaller groups. Can a solo traveller travel for half the price of a couple? Not yet, but we are getting there.
Read: Solo Travel Guide – Solo Holidays and Tips
9. Personalised Flying
Airlines are investing heavily in AI, Wi-Fi, 5G and virtual reality, airlines are poised to offer a more engaging and enriching journey. In Flight entertainment has been transformed. More airlines are offering free ‘streaming quality’ Wi-Fi as SpaceX’s Starlink chain of satellites offers reliable high-speed connectivity on long-haul commercial flights. Not everyone agrees. A counter trend is choosing to fly without entertainment, food, drink or going to the toilet.
10. Trailblazer Hotels
Trailblazer hotels are becoming destinations in their own right, tourists are planning trips around
stays at ‘calling card’ hotels such as Atlantis the Royal in Dubai or Sani Resort in Greece.
Modern hotels such as the Social Hub offer vibey communal spaces, with three, four and five star accommodation available at different parts of the same building.
Eoghan Corry is the lead travel commentator in Ireland, as well as being a historian, author and broadcaster. He has extensively travelled as a journalist and travel writer and has been a speaker and moderator at tourism and aviation conferences across the globe.
