We know what you will do on holiday – before you do

When an email from Tripadvisor popped into our inbox headed “Psst… Our Trendcast knows where you should go next” that rang a bell. A while ago, Wendy Morrill and I wrote a blog piece on  “the intention economy”, which outlined how consumer desires and motivations as the drivers of tourism demand. The growth of AI, and algorithms able to predict our wants, the ‘intention economy’ means that companies can know what we want and where we might travel, before we do.

Creative tourism: back to the future?

But how well can AI predict the future? AI analyses past behaviour, and therefore cannot see so well into the future, particularly in turbulent times such as these. So arguably, humans might be a bit better than AI at anticipating sudden shifts in demand. This is one reason why travel companies such as Tripadvisor combine AI with human input. In the case of Tripadvisor’s Trendcast for 2026, they used a variety of sources, including human input to social media:

“The Tripadvisor Trendcast is grounded in the global behavior of the millions of travelers who turn to us to plan their trips and share their experiences. To uncover this year’s trends, we partnered with Stylus, a leading consumer trend forecaster, blending broader cultural shifts with changes observed across our proprietary data—spanning experience bookings, hotel demand, and review mentions. The result is a forward-looking perspective on how travel is evolving in the years ahead.”

In line with the idea of the intention economy, Tripadvisor thinks it can predict what people will be doing this year. Among the trends they highlight are:

Investigative drinking: visiting alcohol-producing places such as vineyards in Devon (thanks to global warming) or Oaxaca and Jalisco in Mexico, to taste agave spirits beyond tequila and mezcal.

Investigative drinking?

Future foodists: travelling to experience entire culinary ecosystems, such as visiting the Vicentina Fishermen's Trail, highlighting local ingredients and fishing traditions along the Atlantic coast of southwest Portugal, or sampling entire menus highlighting eco-friendly ingredients in the Netherlands.

Thrill of the find: going off the beaten track to find one-off goods such  as hand-forged knives in Japan or vintage ceramics in Portugal. For increased uniqueness tourists can also produce their own souvenirs, including hand-crafted scents or ceramics. Hotel chains such as 1Hotels and Hyatt are increasingly realising that creative tourism experiences are a good way of differentiating themselves.

Humanised hospitality: actually another take on creative tourism, with Beyond hotels offering “human-focused experiences” such as cooking alongside grandmothers in Tuscany or weaving with artisans in Peru.

While the intention economy purports to predict the future, the sharp-eyed reader will realise that most of these trends have been around for a while. In fact, creative tourism has been with us for more than 25 years already. We also don't have to be influenced by AI: we can always decide to do something else, or even not go at all (which at least is more sustainable).