Six Trends Shaping Luxury Travel Now

Indagare surveys its community annually to understand how travelers are thinking about the year ahead, from where and how they want to travel to the hotels, experiences and planning tools they value most. This August, nearly 1,000 Indagare members, subscribers, social followers and industry partners shared their perspectives on the state of travel today.

Just a few weeks later, Indagare's VP of Content and Media Kathryn Nathanson traveled to Marrakech to attend PURE, an annual travel industry conference bringing together hotels, destination experts and travel companies from around the world. Three days of meetings reflected many of the same themes that surfaced in the results of the survey.

Taken together, these discussions reveal a luxury traveler who remains eager to explore and invest in travel, while becoming increasingly discerning about how they plan, where they stay and what makes an experience worthwhile. There is a desire for smaller hotels with a strong sense of place, deeper and more personalized travel and experiences that create a compelling reason to venture beyond the familiar.

Below are six of the standout travel trends for 2026 into 2027 and beyond.

1. AI is Becoming a Common Travel-Planning Tool—But Human Expertise Still Matters

AI use for trip planning has accelerated quickly. Almost 39 percent of respondents use AI to help plan travel, up from just 14 percent as recorded last year. Another 24 percent are curious but haven't tried it yet, meaning that nearly two-thirds of respondents are now open to incorporating AI into their planning. Travelers are most typically using AI to research destinations and refine itineraries, not to book hotels, look for deals and compare prices.

At the same time, respondents underscored that technology needs to complement and not replace human expertise. As one traveler put it, "I don't want efficiency to trump the humanity and curiosity and spontaneity of it all."

As AI makes basic travel information increasingly accessible, trusted curation, firsthand knowledge and personalization become more—not less—valuable. The future of luxury travel planning lies in combining the convenience of technology with the judgment and personal understanding that only human relationships can provide.

2. Travelers Want Insider Knowledge They Can't Find Elsewhere

When travelers shared what they value most about Indagare, trusted, firsthand information shaped by human expertise emerged as a consistent theme. More than 65 percent of respondents value Indagare's insider guides and hotel recommendations, with particular excitement for destination guides, restaurant recommendations, hotel reviews and firsthand intel.

But increasingly, travelers want recommendations that go a layer deeper. They are looking for the small hotel they haven't heard of, the neighborhood restaurant they wouldn't find themselves and compelling reasons to return to destinations they already know. They place particular value on recommendations that have been personally vetted. As one respondent wrote, "You've tested and vetted so much of what you recommend. That holds so much weight."

That desire for deeper access was also apparent at PURE. At Xigera Safari Lodge in Botswana, for example, a new remote-camp experience takes travelers farther into the Okavango Delta, with the opportunity to learn from National Geographic Explorer Dr. Steve Boyes, whose conservation work has focused on protecting the delta and its source waters. Experiences like this go beyond simply seeing a place: they provide access to the people and knowledge that can fundamentally deepen a traveler's understanding.

For well-traveled audiences, having access to information isn't enough anymore. The real value is in the human judgment behind it—the trusted experts who can filter and provide context to an overwhelming amount of information and uncover the places and experiences travelers wouldn't otherwise discover.

3. Travel Spending Is Rising—But Trips Are Becoming More Personal

Travel appetite remains strong. 55 percent of respondents expect they'll end the year spending more on travel in 2026 than they did in 2025, while just six percent plan to spend less. Nearly three-quarters of respondents expect to take between two and five trips this year, and almost nine percent are planning to end the year with 10 or more trips.

What is changing is the types of trips travelers are prioritizing. "Friend trips" led the list of trip types respondents are interested in taking, followed by "romantic getaways" and "solo travel." Meanwhile, several more traditional categories, including family and celebration trips, declined since we last surveyed our community.

At PURE, another dimension of this shift came into focus: as rates at traditional luxury hotels continue to climb, the question for some travelers becomes not simply how much they are willing to spend, but what that spend can offer. At a certain price point, another stay in Paris or on the Mediterranean may be competing for the same travel budget as a safari, a remote lodge in Patagonia or an expedition to Antarctica. White Desert represents the far end of that spectrum: its Antarctic expeditions can cost around $100,000 per person for a week, and the company is preparing to introduce a new camp on the continent. The appeal is fundamentally different from that of a conventional luxury hotel stay: the investment buys access to a place and experience that few travelers will ever encounter.

In northern Norway, a luxury igloo retreat called Isbreen the Glacier offers another example of the shift toward spending on extraordinary access and experiences. The tiny retreat sits amid the fjords with just four sleeping tents and a suite, and days can include diving with whales, swimming in rescue suits while listening to the sounds of the sea and reindeer and husky adventures. With only a handful of guests in this remote setting, the luxury is as much about where you are and what you can experience there as the accommodations themselves.

Still—that doesn't mean travelers are abandoning classic destinations. Rather, rising luxury prices are broadening the value equation: when travelers are already prepared to spend significantly, an extraordinary experience somewhere unexpected can become a compelling alternative to the usual favorites.

As for trip planning timelines, most survey respondents said that they plan travel four to nine months ahead, but last-minute travel is still a major trend. Our team continues to receive requests for spontaneous getaways, and even complex international trips come together on short notice. Many respondents also said that how far in advance they plan really depends on the destination and how complicated a trip is.

4. Boutique Hotels are the Overwhelming Favorite

When it comes to where luxury travelers want to stay, boutique hotels are the clear favorite. Roughly three in four respondents prefer smaller boutique properties (and "boutique" is nearly 30 points ahead of the next hotel category in this year's survey).

The comments help explain why. Travelers repeatedly describe wanting smaller, design-forward hotels with personality and a strong connection to their surroundings. One respondent described the ideal as, "luxury hotels, iconic, with soul, that reflect the local culture," with no more than 80 to 100 rooms. Another simply asked for, "hotels with great design and unique stories."

What stood out at PURE was that small scale alone isn't what makes these types of properties compelling. Among hundreds of hotels represented at the show, the properties that stuck out most—some new or soon to open, others more established—were places with a very specific point of view, often shaped by passionate owners and deeply connected to their surroundings. In an increasingly crowded luxury hotel landscape, the story and soul behind a property can be as memorable as the design itself.

In Patagonia, Explora is expanding its model of intimate, landscape-driven hospitality with two new lodges: a 10-room property on a conservation reserve in Torres del Paine and a 20-room lodge in El Calafate, both offering unusually intimate access to some of the region's most dramatic landscapes. On California's remote Mendocino coast, The Inn at Newport Ranch has just 11 accommodations surrounded by thousands of acres and miles of trails—a wild, relatively untouristed landscape that feels worlds away despite being right here in the U.S., with scenery reminiscent of New Zealand. In Alaska, Tordrillo Mountain Lodge offers another version of this kind of immersion: a remote wilderness experience accessible only by air, with heli-skiing in winter and adventures ranging from hiking and rafting to new floating saunas and hot tubs. For West Coast travelers in particular, it's a reminder that extraordinary wilderness doesn't necessarily require traveling to the other side of the world.

Other properties reinforce the appeal of highly personal, small-scale hospitality. In Umbria, Vocabolo Moscatelli occupies a restored centuries-old monastery and reflects the vision of its owners; in Portugal, the new 16-room Quinta Filippa offers an intimate country retreat; and Shakti, known for immersive journeys through remote regions of India and the Himalayas, is adding Prana, a new seven-suite retreat reachable only on foot. Different as they are, these properties share an intimacy and specificity that larger-scale hospitality simply can't replicate. One of the most exciting openings on the horizon is The Malkai in Oman, a family-owned project set to debut in October 2027. Rather than staying at a single hotel, the experience will take guests across three distinct parts of the country, from the farmlands of Barkaa to the Al Hajar Mountains and Sharqiyah Sands, with a personal guide throughout. The project grew out of the Khimji family's generations-long connection to Oman and is designed to offer travelers a more personal way into the country, its landscapes and its culture.

For travelers accustomed to luxury, individuality, character and a strong sense of place are increasingly important markers of an exceptional hotel experience.

5. Culture, Food and Art are Top Travel Interests

Travelers are looking for a deeper connection to the places they visit. Cultural heritage and history topped this year's list of travel interests, with food and wine and art history close behind—pointing to a strong appetite for depth and discovery. Respondents talk about returning to favorite destinations to explore them more fully, seeking out lesser-known neighborhoods and sites and building trips around specific interests instead of just checking a place off a list. For well-traveled audiences especially, the next great travel experience isn't always a new destination—it might be seeing a familiar one in a completely new way.

PURE reinforced how specific and immersive those interests are becoming. Some of the experiences that stood out were rooted not simply in a destination, but in a particular way of understanding it—from dark-sky immersion and Aboriginal astronomy in Australia to wildlife experiences centered around everything from wolves and polar bears to kangaroos, conservation-focused touring and journeys built around wine, art and local heritage. Increasingly, the destination itself is only part of the draw; the reason to go is what a traveler can learn, see or access once there.

A further example of this is what's happening in Burgundy right now. One of the world's great food and wine destinations, the region has historically been relatively difficult to unlock: demand for its wines far outpaces supply, many domaines aren't geared toward tourism and access often comes down to who you know. But that is beginning to change. Four major openings—Château la Commaraine in Pommard, Les Sources de Vougeot, Château de Cîteaux in Meursault and COMO Le Montrachet in Puligny-Montrachet—are bringing a new level of hospitality to the region. Beyond giving travelers more places to stay, each is developing its own relationships with local winemakers and producers, creating new ways to experience Burgundy and connect with the people behind it. It's another sign of how much travelers are seeking out trips built around food and wine, and how hotels are following that interest into places that have traditionally been harder to access, where trusted relationships and insider, local knowledge can make all the difference in how a traveler experiences a destination.

For well-traveled audiences especially, the next great travel experience isn't always a new destination—it might be seeing a familiar one in a completely new way.

6. Best Rates and Loyalty Benefits are Shaping How Travelers Book

For luxury traveler, the best available rate, loyalty points, status and added benefits all factor into their booking decisions. 80 percent of respondents belong to a travel loyalty program—most often airline or major hotel programs, frequently combined with premium credit-card benefits.

These programs can directly influence and shape booking behaviors, specifically for hotels, and many respondents said points and status are exactly why they book through a particular channel. And when asked what drives the booking decision, a guaranteed best rate came out on top—ahead of all other factors, including loyalty points and 24-hour support.

Travelers want confidence that they're receiving the best available rate while maximizing the benefits and perks that matter most to them.

The Takeaway

The survey findings reinforce something we already know at Indagare: deep destination knowledge combined with an understanding of the individual traveler is critical. Priorities and planning tools will keep evolving, but that personalized approach is always going to be at the heart of how we work and plan travel.

Have thoughts on the future of travel? Share them with us via email or on the Indagare Member Forum—we'd love to hear from you.