Kyoto Imperial Palace, Japan | Image credit:
Jason Leung/Unsplash
If you were scrolling through Instagram around the late autumn of 2024, you might have noticed the ‘In/Out’ list trend cropping up on your feed. These lists contained dozens of ways in which people planned to continue certain habits, alongside an equal number of habits they wanted to drop. As autumn itself embodies the season of change — whether it’s the turning of greenish-yellow leaves to deep browns, or days growing shorter and temperatures cooling down — it can indeed be a good time to contemplate. The same holds in the world of travel, which, in recent years, has been moving at an absurdly fast pace and often feels like an endless onslaught of fleeting trends. On the occasion of World Tourism Day, we spent days poring over travel data from around the globe, tracing the subtle and seismic shifts in how people moved through the world to build our own In/Out list.
Read on to discover what travellers are embracing, what they’re leaving behind, and which trends are getting ousted — because in travel, some things are just too much baggage.
Explore our guide to destination dupes and why they are perfect for a crowd-free getaway.
World Tourism Day 2025: Picks and passes in travel trends
IN: Night trains
Venice Simplon-Orient-Express | Image credit: Belmond
Flying can feel like a moral failing these days, with many arguing that budget airlines have stripped away the joy anyway. Night trains, however, as shown by back-on-track.eu, produce on average 28 times fewer greenhouse gas emissions than air travel in the EU, and are different. They carry romance, mystery, and the chance of sharing a dining car martini with a stranger lost in Dostoevsky.
2025 was the year of the sleeper carriage renaissance, and it’s not just us saying it. According to a survey by BCD Travel, business travellers opted for rail over airports, with two-thirds choosing trains when the cost and time matched those of flights. France further proved the point when sleeper services hit record highs last year, as over a million passengers packed Paris-Toulouse and Paris-Nice night trains. With “Tourism and Sustainable Transformation” being the theme for this World Tourism Day, it is essential to reiterate that trains also serve as a more environmentally friendly alternative to air travel.
OUT: Soulless airport lounges
Unlimited wine! A little buffet of beige food! A sense of exclusivity! But honestly? Sometimes an airport lounge can feel like limbo, dressed in corporate carpeting. While many of us have just plopped down and shrugged off the mediocrity by murmuring “it-is-what-it-is”, thankfully, that era is now over. Passengers now want lounges to do more than merely exist — they want a unique, engaging experience that makes even a short stay memorable and exciting. And those who needed to, it seems, have taken note.
Cathay Pacific’s redesigned lounge at Beijing Capital International Airport now features updated interiors and a Noodle Bar serving regional dishes such as Beijing bean-paste noodles. American Express is working on expanding its Centurion network, with plans to include a jazz bar at Newark Airport and a rooftop bar in Boston by 2027. At Incheon International Airport, Korean Air has introduced Prestige Garden Lounges, which offer outdoor space as part of its broader lounge renewal project.
Also, learn about the best credit cards for airport lounge access.
IN: Layovers need not be just about relaxing anymore
In 2025, spontaneous layovers became quite the travel trend, with airlines jumping on board and enticing more travellers to go all out by offering free and paid stopover programmes. Once, layovers were seen as a chance to relax or unwind. Today, simply killing time by doing nothing is no longer considered a viable option. If you’ve recently noticed nearly every airline promoting stopover or layover programmes on social media, this is the reason why.
Malaysia Airlines’ Bonus Side Trip (BST) programme, announced in June 2025, is the ideal side trip for international passengers, as they are offered a complimentary domestic return flight to one of seven Malaysian destinations when transiting through Kuala Lumpur. Passengers only pay taxes. Similarly, Avianca’s Stopover Bogotá programme allows travellers to extend their layover in Bogotá for up to 24 hours at no extra airfare cost. Wondering why give up your nap and gear up for a one-hour walking tour? Simple! Because you can, and because YOLO.
OUT: Overbooked itinerary flexing
Refshalevej, København K, Denmark | Image credit: Poul Hoang/Unsplash
Packing every hour of a two-week holiday with back-to-back museums, overwhelming onboard entertainment on cruises, and reserving every restaurant your “cultured” friend recommended? We are pleased to announce that overbooked itineraries like this will be cancelled, for good, this Tourism Day. Doing the most when on a “holiday” is no longer a flex, and unloading the extra stuff off your itinerary can literally save you from mental strain.
According to Expedia’s Unpack ’25 travel trends report, 62 percent of respondents said that slow-travel experiences helped reduce stress and anxiety, while nearly half noted that such trips allowed them to reconnect more meaningfully with family and friends. Even Zicasso’s 2025 report revealed that 76.2 percent of respondents prefer single-country journeys in 2025, reflecting a growing appetite for slow, immersive travel that values depth over breadth.
Also, read our slow travel feature on how Kalpa in Himachal Pradesh teaches the art of ‘doing nothing’.
IN: Micro-retirements
Half Dome, United States | Image credit: Jonathon Reed/Unsplash
Micro-retirements are having a major moment, and we can’t say we didn’t see it coming. While many say it is the Gen-Z-fication of the term ‘sabbatical’, others argue that it is a new-age concept designed to prioritise mental wellness, creative fulfilment or travel more now instead of waiting for retirement. But it’s not only Gen-Z. A Side Hustles survey found that 10 percent of workers are contemplating a micro-retirement, while 75 percent believe employers should provide formal policies, such as unpaid sabbaticals, to support such breaks.
One such example is Melbourne-based digital marketer Zara Lim, who told Yahoo Finance that she quit her job in mid-2023 to take an 18-month break across Europe and Asia, funding her travels through pandemic savings and occasional freelance work. This practice of scheduling time off from work and not putting travel on the after-retirement back burner is ‘in’ right now and will most likely become a more commonplace practice in 2026.
OUT: Spamming Instagram stories
Japan | Image credit: MIAO GENGXIN/Unsplash
Posting from the flight, sharing a video of every sunset, and documenting everything you did on your first day at a new location that very night is no longer cool. More people — even Gen Z and Alpha travellers — are discovering that travel is richer when it’s experienced first, shared later. Wander a quiet street and compliment your server instead of obsessively photographing every moment. Have deeper, meaningful conversations with your travel partner, even on your 30th trip together. Or sign up for that art workshop without feeling the need to document it for an audience.
If you’re wondering what’s in, it’s the era of Instagram carousel dumps. Taking time after your trip to process and select your favourite shots lets your storytelling be genuine, reflective, and engaging, rather than a flood of photos from a dinner that didn’t quite live up to expectations.
Also, learn how Instagram has enabled the indexing of public posts on Google.
IN: Hotel-like experiences on the water
Luxury tourism on water | Image credit: Aman
Luxury is predictable. Five stars and infinity pools feel like office perks in holiday form. But checking into a hotel on a moving vessel thousands of miles from the nearest human settlement? That’s memory-making. Hotel brands expanding into cruising became a trend we watched unfold in real time this year, and it is currently one of the most sought-after experiences to plan.
Four Seasons Yachts is poised to debut Four Seasons I in 2026, followed by Four Seasons II in 2027. Aman at Sea plans to introduce Amangati in 2027, a 50-suite yacht that emphasises privacy. Meanwhile, Accor’s Orient Express Silenseas, slated for 2026, will be the world’s largest sailing yacht, featuring 54 lavish suites, including a monumental 15,230-square-foot Presidential Suite, as well as state-of-the-art sustainable technology.
OUT: Travelling to places already burdened by overtourism
Stockholm, Sweden | Image credit: Philip Myrtorp/Unsplash
Throughout 2025, we have covered tourism stories of how different destinations are taking measures into their own hands — from Kyoto’s steep hotel tax increase to European tourist hotspots managing the rising number of visitors. It has made one thing very clear — in the current day, jetting off to a hotspot without acknowledging the strain of tourism on its environment, infrastructure, or local communities is officially out.
Forbes reports that international arrivals are reaching 96 percent of pre-pandemic levels this year, and it is not just the authorities’ responsibility, as conscious travellers must also choose destinations beyond the usual must-see lists or embrace “destination dupe” alternatives. For those still visiting cities burdened by overtourism, programmes like CopenPay reward mindful travel behaviour.
IN: Intentional screen-less vacations
A quarter of travellers are finally giving their thumbs and eyes a much-needed break. While some argue that logging in briefly to check messages or reply to emails is harmless, studies suggest that even small work-related tasks can be distracting and disrupt the relaxation of a vacation. A recent survey by MakeHeadway found that 68 percent of individuals check work emails while on vacation, and 66 percent struggle to fully disconnect.
In response, many travellers are making it a point to put their digital devices away, completely, when possible. The 2025 Hilton Trends Report stated that 25 percent of respondents turn off social media during vacations more than they used to, and another 25 percent actively avoid calls, texts, and emails altogether.
The tourism industry is responding to this shift with immersive digital-free experiences and itineraries that result in screen-free days. In Mexico, the luxury Grand Velas Resorts has introduced a Digital Detox Program, complete with a “Detox Concierge” who collects all electronic devices upon arrival, while at Miraval Resorts in the US, phone-free zones are clearly marked throughout the property.
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(Feature image credit: Jason Leung/Unsplash)
Related | Travel Trends 2025: What’s Hot And What’s Not In The Future Of Travel
Note:
The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
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Written By
Sneha Chakraborty
Sneha Chakraborty is a journalist and photographer covering how travel intersects with food, culture, ..Read Moreand identity. Her reporting has appeared in National Geographic Traveller India, Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveller, Vogue India, and Hindustan Times, where she spent two years on staff as a correspondent covering travel and culture. She is an alumna of the University of Westminster`s Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design. Currently based in Delhi, she grew up in various cities across India and has lived in Amsterdam, and London. Read Less
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