PR and content agency Lemongrass Marketing has revealed its annual travel trends report for 2027, identifying 15 interconnected trends.

Its findings reveal a fundamental shift in traveller behaviour and it predicts a shift away from the pressures of optimisation and hyper-personalisation towards restoration, depth, connection and trust.

Travellers will, says the report, move away from biohacking and AI-generated itineraries towards deeper, slower and more emotional experiences.

Instead of seeing and doing more, travellers will be more interested in feeling better and going deeper into their experience.

“This isn’t a rejection of technology or luxury; it’s a recalibration,” said Mirjam Peternek McCartney, CEO and founder of Lemongrass Marketing.

“People want travel that gives something back – whether that means feeling calmer, understanding a place more deeply or connecting with other people.

“The really interesting thing is how interconnected these trends are. A desire for restoration drives slower travel. Information overload creates a hunger for depth and expertise.”

Headline trends for 2027

1. The anti-optimised holiday

The era of the jam-packed itinerary is losing momentum. Travellers are looking for simpler holidays, longer stays, fewer destinations and more unstructured time.

Permission to do nothing is becoming the ultimate luxury.

2. Nervous system design

Wellness is moving beyond treatments, diagnostics and biohacking.

Hospitality destinations will increasingly design the guest environment around restoration, from lighting and acoustics to nature, movement and human connection.

The best wellness experience is increasingly one guests barely notice – because they simply feel better.

3. From bucket list to depth list

With AI now able to tell us everything about a destination before we arrive, the result is a growing appetite for genuine understanding and human judgement.

Expert-led experiences, workshops and local conversations will increasingly replace the pursuit of checklists.

4. The AI trust gap

Trust is becoming the new differentiator. Travellers are more alert to AI-generated information, so increasing valueable first-hand expertise in their wellness and travel experiences.

5. Luxury’s great trade-off

Luxury is becoming more strategic as travellers increasingly decide where to splurge and where to save.

Understanding what a traveller will compromise on, and what they absolutely will not, will be key for wellness hospitality brands.

Supporting trends to watch

Alongside these five overarching shifts, the report identifies ten further trends.

It predicts the changing conversation around masculinity will create a new travel market for men seeking physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.

As European Spa outlined in our 2026 top trends for spa, more travellers are actively seeking joy, as travel increasingly becomes a form of emotional restoration.

And spiritual curiosity is taking centre stage, with fantasy and storytelling pulling travellers towards folklore-rich destinations.

The 2027 Travel Trend Report ultimately points towards an optimistic shift – travellers are choosing fewer but deeper experiences and prioritising wellbeing without turning it into another benchmark to achieve.

“The opportunity for brands in 2027 is to stop thinking about trends in isolation and start responding to the deeper human needs connecting them,” said Peternek McCartney.

“The next generation of successful travel experiences will not simply be more personalised or more luxurious, they will be more meaningful.”

The full report can be accessed here.

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