Where to Go and Why — Travel Trends for 2019
By Chris Wildgen, McMaster Alumna, travel writer, photographer and tour leader
The new year brings new travel trends for everything from how to travel, where to stay and what to wear. While it’s probably impossible to participate in every trend, it is possible to combine some that intersect. And with global air passenger numbers set to double in the next 20 years, now is the best time
to go. Here are some travel trends and destinations with ideas of why and what to do there.
One key trend is the recognition that the purpose of travel seems to be evolving to becoming less materialistic and more about the experience — authenticity, comfort and happiness being the goals. People care about the impact that they are having, through what they are doing to what they are
buying. With the media highlighting negative impacts of tourism, particularly with the publicity and actions being taken by places such as Venice and Cinque Terre, more tourists are willing to do something to offset the environmental impact of their stay and want to make a difference through their travel and the products they use.
The less-touristed places such as Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Moldova, Greenland, Kazakhstan and Hungary, or the under-the-radar places such as the Faroe Islands (instead of Iceland), Palomino, Colombia (instead of the Caribbean), Ouarzazate, Morocco (instead of Marrakesh), or Toronto (instead of Montreal of Vancouver), can provide the adventures that couples are seeking to bring them closer together all while seeking more local, authentic experiences.
Solo travel continues to be a trend especially for women with a key goal of self-empowerment, which can be achieved through volunteering in a developing country to support local women or achieving a goal such as hiking Mt. Kiliminjaro.
For young professionals it is less solo than semi-solo, with the concept of co-living. People can stay for days, months or weeks in apartment complexes provided by WeLive, or by Roam in Bali, Miami, Tokyo and San Francisco (and soon New York and London).
The environmentally-conscious traveler can now stay at accommodations that are responding to these trends through unique offerings. For instance, the Langham London introduced its zero-waste program through its ‘rapid composting’ system that can turn 2,400 lbs of leftovers into water every 24 hours, a first in Europe. And Salt of Palmar hotel in Mauritius is launching a hydroponic fruit and vegetable farm to help it be more self-self-sufficient.
This extends to product purchases. The traveler can choose attire that is eco-conscious, such as shoes and accessories from Portuguese start-up Wado, which plants two trees for every pair bought, Veja from France which sources organic, fair trade materials and Allbirds from San Francisco which uses merino wool from New Zealand. In support of the plastic ban and to help prevent plastic polluting the oceans, The People’s Movement makes trainers out of upcycled plastic.
The trend for family travel is nomadic sabbaticals, with families considering things such as ‘unschooling’ ‘edventure’ and family gap years. Perhaps while they are traveling, they can try out new ideas for when they return home by staying at the new “homeware hotels.” In Copenhagen, a family could stay at a
Vipp one-bedroom design hotel to test drive a new kitchen, for example.
For everyone, wellness tourism is growing more than twice as fast as general tourism, for all ages and stages of life. Attending an international sporting event is always a trend. Maybe a trip to Japan for the World Cup for Rugby could be combined with a visit to Okinawa to discover the secrets to their
longevity.
And since food is certainly part of wellness, consider Sri Lanka, which is touted as being the number one destination for cuisine for 2019, with the focus on the freshness of the seafood and its spicy curries.
More than half of global travelers plan to make more weekend trips, putting a different spin on “going local.”
Internationally, the top 10 fastest growing tourist destinations, in order, are Egypt, Togo, San Marino, Vietnam, Georgia, Palestinian Territories, Niue, Nepal, Israel and Northern Mariana Islands.
In 2019, purposeful, conscious, and experiential travel, can be found close to home, or in any of the trending destinations.
After an international career in sports medicine and sales and marketing, McMaster graduate Chris Wildgen is following her dream of connecting with people and diving into local cultures around the world through travel. Now a digital nomad, Chris is a travel writer, photographer and tour leader. With a natural flair for languages, she can converse in German, French, Italian, Spanish and English. Visit her site www.travelbetterlivebetter.com.
Read more about Chris’s travels.
