This is the second installment of a three-part series of blog articles looking at some of the key trends in luxury tourism and hospitality in 2025.
In 2025, luxury travel is no longer defined by extravagant price tags or opulent amenities alone. Today’s affluent travelers are rewriting the rules, prioritizing unique, authentic experiences and highly personalized service over traditional markers of luxury.
They seek meaningful connections to the places they visit, craving bespoke adventures and cultural activities that tell a story and resonate with their personal values.
For hoteliers, this shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity. How do you move beyond gold-plated fixtures to deliver the kind of memorable, tailored experiences that these discerning guests expect?
In this blog, we’ll explore how the modern luxury traveler’s mindset has evolved and share actionable strategies for creating authentic, personalized hospitality that exceeds their expectations.
It was once referred to as “going off the beaten path.” Today, it’s sometimes described as being an “anywhere traveler.” According to Skift Research, this term refers to “a mid-career aspiring jetsetter with the wealth and time to travel nearly anywhere but discriminating enough to not visit just anywhere. This group has a strong passion for experiences that take them off the traditional travel pathways to less obvious destinations.”
Paul Johnson, editor of A Luxury Travel Blog, highlighted several factors influencing this shift, including growing awareness of the impact excessive tourism has on popular destinations.
“With overtourism an increasingly sensitive subject in certain parts of the world such as Barcelona and Venice, I think we can expect people to travel to less mainstream locations in 2025 and to travel out of season more,” Johnson said. “Coolcationing has also been a rising trend for some time now, and I expect this to continue, in part in response to overtourism. Expect travelers to seek quieter, crowd-free experiences.”
In response to this demand for "less mainstream locations", Australia-based tour operator Intrepid Travel publishes an annual “Not Hot List”, featuring 10 lesser-known destinations that it says deserve the spotlight for travel in the year ahead. For 2025, these destinations are:
Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
(Qeqertarsuaq) Disko Island, Greenland
Cape York, Australia
Adirondacks, New York
Sainshand, Mongolia
Rupununi Savannah, Guyana
Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Accra, Ghana
Maldonado, Uruguay
Oslo, Norway
Visiting these lesser-known destinations supports sustainable tourism by promoting genuine interactions and community engagement, thereby benefiting both travelers and destinations.
Leigh Barnes, president of the Americas for Intrepid, told Tribune News Service that “Travelers to these emerging locations experience trips free from overtourism’s downsides — no tourist taxes, no frustrated locals — while forging deeper connections with communities and their stories.”
Travelers are increasingly seeking authentic travel experiences that reflect the essence of local culture. This often starts with hotel design, which can establish a unique identity and evoke a sense of place by incorporating elements inspired by the rich cultural heritage of the local community.
Millennial and Gen Z travelers, in particular, highly value authenticity. They are drawn to dining on local cuisine and enjoying regionally crafted beer and wine.
Many also seek opportunities to engage with local residents and participate in local traditions and cultural events that allow them to immerse themselves in the daily life of the community, make personal connections, and feel like locals.
Quoted in a recent USA Today article, Christina Bennett, consumer travel expert for Priceline, said:
People are seeking out smaller towns and more local authentic experiences. I would dub 2025 as the year of intentional travel. Travelers are looking to go to unique places where they are really getting bespoke experiences. They want to live like a local and not go to touristy attractions; it’s about really experiencing a new culture, getting to know the locals, and forging new connections.
Millennials and Gen Z prioritize life experiences over possessions, especially when it comes to luxury travel. What they seek most in a destination is a truly unique experience.
According to Skift, 70% of millennial and Gen Z travelers in the United States actively seek experiences their family and friends haven’t encountered. In China, this figure climbs to an impressive 90%.
For hotel operators, the best way to attract these travelers — short of opening a property in an unexpected location — is to ensure the hotel itself becomes a unique destination capable of delivering an extraordinary guest experience.
In the increasingly competitive world of luxury hospitality, hotels are striving to stand out by offering exceptional experiences tailored to individual guest preferences.
In a report on how the guest experience is changing, Deloitte noted that “The principle of knowing guests is and has always been at the core of understanding and delivering an exceptional hotel guest experience.”
Dan Kornick, chief information officer for Loews Hotels, echoed that sentiment in a report from Skift and Oracle titled "Hospitality in 2025": “The future of hotel technology is about a service culture and a personalized approach at the end of the day, whether it’s through technology or through that high touch experience. And knowing the customer and that data is really the key, the holy grail to it all.”
Personalization is set to remain a key trend in 2025, with luxury hotels leveraging data analytics and artificial intelligence to create customized experiences — ranging from tailored room settings to personalized dining suggestions.
Research from 2021 revealed that 78% of travelers are more likely to book with properties that provide personalized experiences, and nearly 50% are willing to share their personal data to enable a truly individualized stay.
These personalized touches not only enhance guest satisfaction but also drive customer loyalty and boost revenue.
We will take a closer look at the role of technology creating luxury travel experiences and personalized service the next installment of this three-part series of blog articles.
For further reading about this and other topics — including the rise of culinary vacations and the appeal of detour destinations — please download our new report, Redefining Luxury Hospitality.