“Embrace the Night: Why ‘Noctourism’ is Set to Shine in 2025”

Rebecca Douglas has visited Iceland 29 times. She has already scheduled her 30th journey.

The objective of each visit remains unchanged: capturing the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, through photography.

Since 2010, Douglas has been taking pictures of this incredible phenomenon. Its hues — which can illuminate the sky in a stunning mix of green, purple, yellow, and blue — result from solar particles interacting with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere. With the present solar cycle peaking at its 11-year cycle, a more pronounced display of lights is anticipated over the next four years.

Based in Kent, United Kingdom, Douglas is a professional photographer who also travels each year to Finland, Norway, and Iceland for nocturnal photography. However, she mentioned that in the past year, she was able to capture the Northern Lights from the English countryside.

Unknowingly, Douglas has been an early enthusiast of “noctourism” — a burgeoning trend centered on nighttime travel adventures.

Booking.com identified it as a leading travel trend for 2025, characterizing it as a desire to “escape daylight crowds for midnight enchantment.” A worldwide survey conducted by the company involving over 27,000 travelers indicated that nearly two out of three travelers have contemplated “darker sky destinations” for activities like stargazing (72%), unique cosmic events (59%), and constellation observations (57%).

Most pursuits focus on the night sky, yet others take place on land, such as urban excursions and nighttime truffle hunting in Italy, or full moon picnics by the shore.

Luxury travel company Wayfairer Travel reported a 25% increase in noctourism experiences over the past year, showing a demand for Northern Light sightings in Norway and Iceland, as well as night diving in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Egypt’s Red Sea. Nocturnal wildlife safaris in Zambia and Kenya, along with stargazing in Chile’s Atacama Desert, are also favorites, according to the company.

“Noctourism is poised to revolutionize travel in 2025 as night owl adventurers increasingly seek extraordinary after-dark experiences,” stated the company’s CEO Jay Stevens.

According to the luxury travel agency Scott Dunn, eclipse chasing could emerge as a new “bucket list” experience.

“Many travelers are exploring distant regions of the globe to witness these celestial wonders, with Greenland’s High Arctic expected to become the next must-visit spot due to its remote, light-pollution-free coasts,” a spokesperson for Scott Dunn remarked.

However, travelers need not venture that far, as hotels from Hawaii to Austria are now providing stargazing activities. The upcoming total lunar eclipse will take place on March 14 and will be visible across much of the globe, including the Americas, Western Europe, and Western Africa, as per NASA.

Douglas typically steers clear of hotel packages, favoring her own travel plans since she arranges numerous nighttime activities. She added that she prefers to avoid large gatherings, which often consist of individuals new to noctourism who unintentionally contribute to light pollution with their smartphones and camera flashes.

Douglas organizes the majority of her excursions around the optimal times to observe the Northern Lights — generally from August to April, she noted. She also opts for secluded lodgings far from towns and even neighbors, as just a single streetlight or domestic lamp can spoil her photographs, she remarked.

“I invest considerable time reviewing lodging options via Google Maps,” she elaborated. “If there’s any illumination in the photos, I will inquire with the host about the possibility of turning off the external lights … Even the least active displays can be magnificent if you’re situated in a genuinely dark locale.”

She also takes lunar phases into account, she mentioned.

“During that two-week window surrounding a new moon, you experience the darkest skies imaginable. Not only is the Aurora at its finest, but the stars are absolutely mesmerizing,” she expressed. “You can see the Milky Way, which appears as a breathtaking ribbon of dust and sparkle across the heavens.”

Douglas developed an online course to assist individuals in capturing the aurora borealis through photography.

At night, she also captures noctilucent clouds — shimmering ice crystal clouds high in the atmosphere — and polar stratospheric rainbow clouds, she indicated. Sometimes she photographs from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m., and has worked in temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

“It’s been said that you have to strive for your art,” remarked Douglas.

However, for her, spending her journeys capturing photographs at night is “a privilege,” she stated.