Sarah Tucker flags up some key travel trends and destinations
Travel is like fashion. It follows trends, influenced by experts and celebrities, but in the end it’s creativity, courage, time and budget that dictate one’s final choice of destination.
Last year saw a number of traditional tourist melting-pots simply melt away from favour. Blame the terrorists, mostly. Egypt and Tunisia were locata non grata, while even ‘safe’ places such as Brussels and the Côte d’Azur – still reeling from their conversion into mini war zones – remained in shadow.
In addition, airlines like the excellent Monarch went bust, while Ryanair pushed its pilots and passengers to the edge. Brexit lost us points with the continentals, but as sterling faltered, they came to visit us anyway.
Wellbeing holidays are on the most rapid rise – witness all the yoga retreats in California, Ibiza, India or anywhere ending in a vowel – while dancing in South America and Vienna (the Strictly effect) is also waltzing up the charts. Cosmetic surgery? Yup, around 4% of us are going under the knife or needle abroad at a snip and tuck of the price one would pay at home. Oh, and we’re taking more walking, climbing and cycling breaks too.
The sharing economy, promoted by the likes of airbnb.co.uk, onefinestay.com (upmarket airbnb), couchsurfing.com and flipkey.com, continues to facilitate multi-city breaks. Every generation, it seems, travels more than the one before. Perhaps the millennials do it because they can’t afford homes, while middle-agers keep moving because they’ve rented out their homes to the millennials.
So what of 2018? Well, according to Euromonitor – which forecasts travel trends with great precision – Trump will have a hugely detrimental impact on US tourism. Personally, I doubt whether dread of the Donald will really keep us away from the States. But just in case, here are some other hotspots to try...
China
A ‘must do’ for those wanting to experience a place changing faster than the UK’s Brexit deal. The biggest mistake when visiting China is to try to ‘do’ the whole country in a month. China is huge. ‘Doing’ it would be like ‘doing’ the whole of non-Russian Europe, with a few chunks of Africa thrown in.
So plan carefully. Tour operators Explore, Exodus andG Adventures all include excellent guides with well-thought-out itineraries – essential for China. Explore (explore.co.uk) offers bespoke options based on different types of holiday – boat, train, trekking – and information about when various festivals are on. Local firm Putney Travel Company (putneytravel.co.uk) also gives expert advice, while travelsupermarket.com compares the prices of the different tour operators.
Italy
Although cities such as Rome and Venice are losing tourists to the likes of Dubai, Italy remains the most popular destination for city breaks, thanks to our love affair with its food, culture, weather and sheer unmanufactured romance.
Recently I returned from Umbria. Notwithstanding the dreadful earthquakes of 2016, villages such as San Gemini and the stunning villas on the Murlo wine estate, half an hour’s drive from Assisi, provide an excellent opportunity to explore this less touristy part of the country, whatever your budget and style. I will be writing about the region later in the year and would love to visit again soon.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is set to maintain its ‘most popular destination’ status right into 2025, according to Euromonitor. As a stop-off point en route to other key tourist traps, as well as a destination in itself, it’s popular with both millennials on their round-the-world gap year and middle-aged crisis travellers with bucket lists. Along with Canada, Hong Kong is one of the few places where I habitually well up on departure. The energy never fails to electrify.
India
The growth in wellbeing breaks, yoga retreats and spas has led more of us to India. According to 101 Singles Holidays, twice as many single women as single men over the age of 50 are travelling to India by themselves. This, claims the tour operator, is due in part to the Real Marigold Hotel effect, but I believe that it owes more to courage and the growth in female financial independence.
And now there’s Michael Portillo. He may not have wowed the voters back in the day, but his impact on rail travel has been considerable. With India the focus of his latest TV series, expect to see yet more tourists on subcontinental tracks. Delhi to Rajasthan is quite different from London to York, and more and more MAWIM – middle-aged women in menopause – are intent on trying it out.
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