The High Travel Trends Revealed At World Travel Market

As the World Travel Market (WTM) kicks off in London, the way in which we shall be travelling sooner or later has been put within the highlight. The four-day extravaganza for the journey business—one of many world’s main tourism occasions—celebrates its 45^th anniversary in 2025 and can see greater than 5,000 exhibitors from all over the world and in extra of 45,000 business professionals attending the London symposium.

Yesterday, at a packed information convention on the opening day (4 November), the newest WTM Trends Report 2025 was unveiled. The report, performed by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics firm and a number one international financial forecaster and supplier of quantitative evaluation, reveals a promising future for the journey business.

Dave Goodger, managing director, Tourism Economics EMEA, reveals the WTM Trends Report 2025.

(Credit: WTM)

Unveiling the analysis, Dave Goodger, managing director, Tourism Economics EMEA, revealed how tourism continues to outpace financial development. “While there is some concern around economic conditions, travel continues to outpace economic growth and we expect this to continue over the next 10 years,” says Goodger. “We expect travel and tourism GDP to grow 3.5% on average over the next 10 years with international and leisure sectors, in particular, showing continued growth.”

In 2025, international journey has bounced again from the financial turndown following the pandemic, reaching new file ranges. “International arrivals are set to increase to more than 1.5 billion this year, surpassing the previous record achieved in 2019.”

The report unveiled at WTM reveals how and the place we shall be travelling over the subsequent 5+ years.

(Credit: WTM)

The key tendencies unveiled confirmed that vacationers are staying longer in a vacation spot, reversing the prior pattern of taking extra frequent however shorter journeys. “This shift is particularly notable in the Middle East where trip lengths have increased by around two-thirds compared to 2019,” says the report. The elevated prominence of Saudi Arabia and important funding within the infrastructure throughout the area could also be among the many causes guests are selecting to remain longer on this a part of the world.

Also inflicting a change of behaviour amongst shoppers are local weather issues. Factors, similar to extreme warmth and wildfires, have seen an rising pattern of shifting demand from the height summer time season to shoulder or low season intervals. This has additionally sparked the pattern of ‘cool-cations’ with journey to some Nordic international locations—Sweden, Norway and Finland—anticipated to develop by 9% in 2025, outpacing extra conventional summer time locations.

The Middle East and, specifically, Saudi Arabia, present promise of elevated tourism, says the report.

(Credit: WTM)

Bucket listing locations are set to stay standard, with the highest 50 city locations poised for a 20% development in worldwide arrivals over the subsequent 5 years, with Dubai and Bangkok main the cost. The report additionally reveals that, as vacationers search for new experiences and worth for cash, various locations have gotten more and more standard, with Albania and El Salvador displaying development lately.

One of the massive tendencies for 2024 reveals no signal of slowing down, with the position of huge occasions, similar to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, a driving drive in journey choices. “Live events, including sport and music events, feature prominently within this growth area. According to Allied Market Research, the live events industry is set to grow by nearly 6% per year over the next five years, outstripping expected industry-wide growth. Destinations are actively encouraging major touring artists to host events in their cities following the successes of a series of high-profile concerts.”

The quest for culturally-rich choices is inflicting the business to reshape its operations, says the report.

(Credit: Alex Maguire Photography)

The quest for culturally-rich choices, together with assembly locals and sampling regional foods and drinks, is inflicting the business to reshape its operations, with extra concentrate on handcrafted experiences and storytelling. “Today’s travelers are increasingly seeking more unique experiences and authentic engagement with local communities,” reveals the report. “This is also causing other shifts in behavior as more travelers pursue less crowded destinations, with shifts in seasonality in some parts of the world.”

Technology is one other vital space, with tech more and more serving to with crafting customized and significant journey experiences. Instant messaging platforms, similar to WhatsApp, are serving to companies present custom-made and localized info. Travel apps are additionally gaining prominence with immersive companies and digital platforms enjoying an important half within the customer journey, from dreaming and planning to reserving. AI instruments, in the meantime, have turn out to be extra very important in offering customized experiences. elevated digital automation in transport hubs, with biometrics and good safety techniques, means a sooner and extra seamless course of when travelling, In brief, AI has rapidly turn out to be a significant driver of demand, with 3 times as many journey professionals saying AI instruments will assist to extend, relatively than lower, total journey spend.

WTM is the benchmark of the well being of the journey business.

(Credit: WTM)

Finally, rising capability throughout air and cruise journey and lodging can be serving to to gas development. Airline enlargement has continued at tempo lately, with over 15,000 new plane on the orderbooks with Boeing and Airbus. The cruise business has additionally proven speedy development for the reason that finish of the pandemic, with international cruise passengers set to surpass 38 million in 2025. There are 15 new vessels anticipated to launch by the tip of the yr, and new manufacturers coming into the market, together with AROYA cruises for the Arabian market. Meanwhile, within the lodgings sector, 2025 is about to be one other robust yr of enlargement too, with over 500,000 new resort rooms throughout the globe are anticipated to open in the course of the yr with an additional a million rooms beneath building.

Overall, the long run is briaght, stated Goodger “Driving the growth is a shift in consumer behaviour, with people across the globe continuing to prioritise spending on travel.”