Forecast 2026: The trends and trendsetters we’d like to see in global travel next year
The submit Forecast 2026: The trends and trendsetters we’d like to see in global travel next year appeared first on TD (Journey Day by day Media) Travel Daily Media.
With 2026 looming on the horizon, we’ve taken a look back at the year that’s drawing to a close and searching in direction of what might come subsequent.
For us who cowl the fields of journey, tourism, hospitality, and aviation, meaning holding a watch out for each upcoming tendencies and people who’re certain to set the world on fireplace with contemporary concepts that may shake up typical pondering, ushering in higher methods of exhibiting travellers the world round them.
On this specific function, we current three people with the potential to drive the business’s evolution, together with three tendencies we see taking centre stage within the yr to return.
Three faces to look at in 2026
Beatrice Leong (proper) prepares to guide her masterclass on inclusive occasions at BE @ Penang 2025
Malaysia: Beatrice Leong, gender and accessibility advocate
We had each the honour and the privilege of assembly Beatrice Leong on the lately concluded BE @ Penang 2025 in Malaysia the place she made a powerful case for accessibility in journey and tourism, notably the place MICE is anxious.
As an advocate for gender equality and accessibility for all, Leong famously stated: “Activist is only a fancy phrase for individuals who wish to scold governments.”
In her case, although, scolding governments has yielded nice outcomes: Leong’s intrepid drive and that of different accessibility advocates has gone a great distance with regard to creating journey and hospitality in Malaysia extra inclusive.
She has not been afraid to ask the troublesome questions and is sort of upfront with ideas on how areas will be made extra accessible for individuals who understand or expertise the world in another way from others, not solely on a bodily degree, however on a neuro-psychological degree, as nicely.
With regard to dwelling design, particularly, she requested of her viewers: “Accessibility is definitely about how usable is your house, how usable is your product, your service design. How variety are you in coping with individuals who have anxiousness, who’re in all probability dealing with melancholy, however nonetheless have to exit to purchase groceries? This stuff require readability of knowledge. How are you conveying the structure of knowledge?”
Leong believes that, whereas full accessibility for all would possibly probably not be attainable, people want accessibility on a regular basis; that, in flip wants adjustment on the a part of hospitality suppliers, airways, and facility managers, together with a larger understanding and persistence with travellers who see or expertise the world in another way from everybody else.
Hers is a voice we look ahead to listening to, particularly given the growing emphasis on accessibility the world over.
Miguel Cabel Moreno dishes up helpings of his Amor del Mar seafood speciality at a four-hands dinner at Crimson Boracay
Philippines: Miguel Cabel Moreno, Michelin-lauded chef and culinary heritage advocate
In a recent interview held within the wake of From Shore to South, a four-hands dinner collaboration at Crimson Resort and Spa Boracay, Filipino chef and culinary advocate Miguel Cabel Moreno informed us concerning the lady who approached him simply minutes after he acquired two Michelin Bib Gourmand nods for his eating places Palm Grill and Cabel.
As Cabel Moreno recollects: “She went and informed me ‘I might really favor to obtain your award than a Michelin Star.’ Once I requested her why, she defined that it was an award given by the folks fairly than the critics.”
To say that Cabel Moreno’s meals is a love letter to the individuals who like to eat could be critically underplaying the significance of his work to the folks of Southern Mindanao, a area that has been bypassed all too regularly by Philippine tourism officers preferring to tout the colonial treasures of Luzon and the Visayas.
Certainly, selling the delicacies and heritage of such a far-flung and criminally underrated (and, certainly, oft maligned) vacation spot has been an uphill climb for the chef.
As he put it: “I used to inform potential diners: ‘Look, Mindanao meals is Filipino meals. It’s nearly as good as the same old Filipino aptitude that you simply take pleasure in; just give it a attempt.’ So, that has been a relentless wrestle. Regardless of our meager advertising and marketing efforts, presence, and all that, I’m grateful that we have been capable of keep. And the approaching of the Michelin Information validated all that onerous work for us; it helped pave the way in which for my eating places. Talking on my restaurant’s behalf, it opened so many doorways for Filipinos to lastly get to attempt it because an entity as large as Michelin Information validated and acknowledged us for what we do. Because of that, it opened folks’s eyes, and now they need to attempt it.”
As of press time, Cabel Moreno is poised to open a brand new department for Palm Grill at Tambayan, the brand new meals corridor at Ninoy Aquino Worldwide Airport’s Terminal 3.
Likewise, his youngsters’s books Migoy: The Tausug Boy and The Story of Putli Mandi, written in English, Filipino, and the chef’s native dialect Bahasa Sug, have gone a great distance in presenting the tradition of Southern Mindanao to kids of the northern and central components of the nation, in addition to the remainder of the world as these have been featured on the 2025 Frankfurt Guide Honest.
Dr Bona Nahyun Lee (centre) listens as a information explains the historical past of Penang’s George City district
South Korea: Dr Bona Nahyun Lee, best-selling creator and tech evangelist
The fantastic thing about modern know-how lies in the way in which it makes issues simpler for folks, no matter what business they might belong to.
Such is the case with the MICE sector, a discipline whose professionals too typically find yourself burnt out as they should take care of the tedium of planning and coordination nicely earlier than the precise occasion goes reside.
However for BornTiger chief government and tech evangelist Dr Bona Nahyun Lee, modern applied sciences go a great distance in direction of making issues simpler and extra environment friendly for occasions professionals.
Throughout her speak The AI-powered Future of Business Events, Lee identified the rising number of instruments obtainable for dealing with every part from planning to precise showrunning.
Synthetic intelligence (AI), particularly, takes a lot of the stress out of the equation, seeing the way it allows professionals to create complete displays with only a few key phrases, put together precise occasion sequences, and even simulate venues in use to offer all stakeholders a complete preview of their endeavour, enabling them to make the mandatory changes nicely beforehand.
At current, most of Lee’s books are in Korean, however we look ahead to the day when her knowledge on innovation and automation makes it to a wider international viewers.
Three tendencies to control in 2026
Regenerative and rehabilitative tourism past Asia
One of many main talks through the 2025 PATA Vacation spot Advertising Discussion board in Thailand was a presentation on Doi Tung, a sustainable vacation spot within the north of the nation which was, alas, a hotbed for legal exercise within the infamous heyday of the Golden Triangle.
A long time on, nonetheless, Doi Tung has greater than cleaned up its act, because it now serves as a cultural hub that provides a few of the finest espresso, tea, and even macadamia nuts on the continent.
That being stated, Doi Tung’s story ought to serve for instance and inspiration to different nations on the subject of remodeling areas with a lower than fascinating status into locations that supply classes from their historical past together with specialities endemic to the area.
In doing so, governments can help communities via what is named regenerative tourism and primarily convey hope to areas with a darkish previous and provide a method in direction of a brighter future.
We’ve seen such transformations in battle-torn areas like many components of Japan, in addition to the Philippine islands of Bataan and Corregidor; in any case, anybody who fails to listen to the tales of the previous or heed their classes is certain to make the identical tragic errors.
Immersive studying experiences for the following era of journey and tourism professionals
MICE isn’t only a method by which industries can collect their finest and brightest beneath a single roof, however these occasions additionally function a studying expertise for the following era of pros.
We noticed this first-hand at BE @ Penang and at PDMF2025 when complete contingents of scholars and their mentors made their method over to take heed to the business’s foremost minds to achieve larger data.
Having been an instructional myself, I can not state sufficient on how publicity to precise business professionals and experiences helps spherical out a person’s training: they get to see life in the actual world, see the present professionals at work, and achieve a larger understanding of the careers they face when schooldays finish.
Additionally, I’ve come to the conclusion that the concepts provided by college students nonetheless shyly do have a substantial amount of benefit: it takes somebody who has not but been jaded by the rigours and stresses of the career to give you contemporary concepts or new methods to method previous points, bringing these nearer to decision.
Time to rethink MICE
MICE has advanced considerably all through this yr, and the inclusion of devoted Experience Zones at occasions like ITB Asia have opened the eyes of many occasion organisers to numerous prospects.
With know-how altering at such a speedy clip, notably interactive programming, MICE professionals want to sit down down and think about the place they might finest intrgrate these improvements of their occasions.
Certainly, fairly than simply hopping from one sales space or pavilion to a different while urgent flesh or gathering brochures, interactive applied sciences assist individuals get a larger understanding of the occasion or of latest improvements, thus encouraging them to delve deeper and study extra.
Likewise, because of the introduction of hybrid occasions, nascent and present applied sciences make it attainable for these abroad to get in on the motion while not having to really be on website.
Whereas this may occasionally appear awkward, it does give the phantasm of really being there with out constructing an environmentally unsound carbon footprint, thus additionally incomes factors for sustainability.
We’ve a lot to consider for the approaching yr, however one factor is definite: with journey and tourism evolving so quickly, the most effective factor we will do is sit again, loosen up, and simply be there for the experience into components unknown.
The submit Forecast 2026: The trends and trendsetters we’d like to see in global travel next year appeared first on Travel Daily Media.