In the age of mass travel, travel has become an indispensable part of people’s life. In the past few years, travel has become an important way for many people to escape from daily life and heal their mood. What kind of travel can people expect in the coming year of 2024? A new survey of 27,000 people conducted by the world’s leading hotel and accommodation booking platform, Bingke, has revealed seven future travel trends that reveal how people are using travel to explore the world, enrich their lives and create better life experiences.
According to the survey, travel will be a part of life for respondents from 33 countries and regions in 2024. Nearly nine in 10 (88 percent) Chinese travelers say they feel more energized than ever while on vacation, and 75 percent of them believe they bring out the best in themselves while traveling.
One of the seven types of travel favored by people in the New Year is to meet another true self and be the protagonist of life. Seventy-five percent of surveyed Chinese travelers believe they bring out the best in themselves while on vacation, being able to shed their inhibitions and embrace their new personality, 81 percent feel “protagonist energy” – the power to “become the protagonist of your life” while traveling, and 80 percent want to return to their daily lives to be more like themselves on vacation.
The second category is the trip to unlock summer tricks and get close to nature. 76% of Chinese travellers believe that climate change will affect the way they plan their holidays in 2024. As temperatures soar near where they live, 79 percent will use the holiday to escape the heat. Demand for water yoga, water baths and ice and snow meditation is expected to soar, along with a boom in ice therapy refinements, underwater hotels and merman culture.
Embracing the unknown and regaining the courage to walk away has also become a favorite travel method for up to 77% of Chinese travelers. According to the survey, 63 percent of Chinese travelers do not want to make a fixed plan before a trip, but rather go along with the trip. In addition, the explosive growth of AI is becoming a mainstream trend, with 73% of travelers trusting AI to plan their trip for them.
Becoming a food detective and awakening the memory of taste buds is an experience most travelers crave. More than four in five (83%) Chinese travellers are more interested than ever in learning about the origins of a destination’s “must eat” food and want to try local specialties in 2024, with traditional flavours getting a lot of attention.
In a world of global instability and increasing busyness, when life hits difficulties or setbacks, travelers will choose themed journeys that focus on self-improvement and return themselves once again to the life they truly desire. Therefore, the revival of life and the search for spiritual healing have also become one of the favored ways of travel. Of the 27,000 parents surveyed, 85 percent plan to travel alone in 2024, prioritizing their own physical and mental health.
In addition, smart travel, the harvest of personalized light luxury enjoyment and the practice of sustainable new fashion will also occupy a place in the New Year’s travel. In a trend of downsizing, travelers in 2024 will use savings techniques to cut costs, but enhance the vacation experience with “choice on demand.” Such as traveling to a destination where the cost of living is lower than where you live, paying a single fee to use five-star hotel facilities rather than actually staying at the hotel, etc.
With such travel trends, what kind of recovery will the travel market show in 2024? In this regard, Lu Weifeng, general manager of the market support department of Bingke China, gave a “cautiously optimistic” evaluation. Lu Weifeng said that the reason for optimism is that after the full liberalization of China’s entry-exit market this year, the proportion of Chinese tourists outbound tourism has increased rapidly, and the demand for visas for inbound tourists is also very large, and the recent launch of a series of simplified visa materials and visa-free policies have played a significant role in promoting it. All these situations show that both entry-exit and short-distance travel are irrepressible needs. On the other hand, the increase in travel costs caused by inflation in many destinations around the world, the recovery of international flights is not as expected, and travelers’ concerns about destination security issues will still have a certain impact on the speed of recovery of the travel market in 2024.
