TRAVEL

5 Exciting and New Travel Trends For 2020

 

Over the past few years, a new generation of travellers is coming of age. With this change comes a natural evolution in travel trends, but there is also an increase in awareness of climate change, people travelling on a budget and influencer travel. People are flying less in order to reduce their carbon footprint, Brexit has had an impact on the cost of European travel and over-tourism has led to people steering clear of once serene and quiet locations such as Santorini and Venice.

 

We’re in a new world when it comes to travel trends and long gone are the days of cheap and cheerful travel – there are plenty of new and exciting travel trends which we can expect to see boom this year. 

 

Space Travel

 

After years of talks and discussions, the time is finally here. Virgin Galactic are planning on taking members of the public on 90-minute long hops into space. Last summer, photos of the new departure lounge were published, where the first lot of amateur cosmonauts were in preparation to take their journey on the new VSS Unity. 

 

Space travel and tourism is a growing trend in this tech-obsessed world and is something of a fun dream for billionaires across the globe. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space travel company hopes to begin test flights of its new craft in 2020, whilst Space X has plans to take a Japanese billionaire on an orbit around the moon as early as 2023. There have even been plans made for the first-ever space hotel to open in 2025. The Von Braun Rotating Space Station will come with accommodation, bars, restaurants and even private residential spaces for sale. 

 

Best of British

 

With concerns about our carbon footprint and new Brexit implications, staycations are on the increase in the UK, whether it be glamping in Cornwall or spa breaks in the Lakes. According to ABTA, around 56% of Brits will enjoy a UK-based holiday this year, with plenty of options available depending on what it is you’re looking for. 

 

From luxury hotels in the city centre to fun-fulled family holiday parks, the UK has pretty much everything you could want (apart from the weather). For an urban escape, Manchester is the place to be with its fantastic food and drink scene – the city has recently earned its first Michelin star – whilst Plymouth is ideal if you want to experience history, with a packed 2020 calendar of events to mark the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower. 

 

Luxury Over Everything

 

With many tourists choosing to book their holidays via third-party sites rather than through an estate agent, many are finding that luxury travel is actually just as affordable as regular travel. Whether it be business-class flights, free upgrades from collecting supermarket points or stunning accommodation, many travellers are getting a taste of the high life, which is now all the more available. 

 

Algarve villas offer a luxury getaway all in the comfort of your own private villa, whilst for just a couple of pound more on selected flights, you can upgrade to business or first-class travel. Travellers are also realising that long-haul destinations such as Bali and Thailand have much better connections than they did just five years ago and offer a lot more value for money, especially in terms of luxury travel and accommodation. 

 

Slow Travel

Slow travel is a trend which focuses on everything, from carbon footprints to the idea that holidays should be exactly that, a holiday: they don’t need to be about cramming everything in in a short period of time.

 

Tour operators who specialise in so-called slow-travel have reported a huge increase in bookings, with railway holidays proving particularly popular. In 2020, the Indian Pacific railway, which connects Perth and Sydney celebrates 50 years of operation, whilst 2020 will see the launch of the Austrian Federal Railway’s Brussels to Vienna sleeper service. There have been record numbers of tourists booking a seat on the Switzerland Glacier Express, which celebrates its 90th birthday this year and runs between St Moritz and Zermatt. 

 

Ancestry Tourism

 

With such a huge uptake of home DNA kits in recent years, more and more people are travelling around the globe to find out more about their heritage, leading to the development of so-called ancestry tourism. This type of travel tends to become popular leading up to or during anniversaries of major historic events. 

 

For example, a lot of people who find out that their relatives were on the Titanic make a trip along the route it was destined to take and learn more about their ancestors. 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, and travel experts are expecting to see a huge increase in the number of people visiting the region, whether they have a connection to Japan or have relatives who fought in Japan during WWII.