What will luxury travelers want in 2027? From holidays built around an obsession to hotels with doctors on hand, seven members of the Spotlight team examine the changing demands behind the bookings.
Trend #1: Connection over Consumption
Felicity Womersley Smith on seeking a deeper connection to the places we visit.
On a shingle beach in Greenland, Anika Krogh boils freshly caught cod over a driftwood fire, then serves it on the rocks with seaweed. Her guests eat with their fingers. There is no tasting menu, although the provenance would take some beating.
Krogh’s family has hunted this land and fished these waters for generations. Through Nomad Greenland, travelers stay in seasonal canvas camps and experience the Arctic on its own terms.
This is the kind of encounter that stays with you: understanding somewhere through a person whose life is rooted there. At Skift Global Forum, Banyan Group’s Ho Ren Yung spoke about travelers wanting to participate in a destination’s community and ecology, and measuring what hospitality contributes to its surroundings.
Local people should help decide how visitors experience their home and share fairly in the income. Eating what grows there, understanding the landscape and paying the people who make a place distinctive can be among the pleasures of a holiday. Sometimes the most memorable lunch comes without a plate.
Trend #2: Design – Quiet v Maximalism
Lily Bryden on luxury hotels finding their volume.
Quiet luxury has increasingly flamboyant company. After years of pale wood, oatmeal linen and discreet good taste, hotels are getting more adventurous with colour and pattern.
Two of 2026’s major openings illustrate the range. At Amanvari, Aman’s first Mexican resort, wood, stone, and hand-applied white concrete keep the interiors subdued, letting the Baja landscape provide the spectacle. At Palazzo Donà Giovannelli, Orient Express Venezia surrounds guests with frescoes, watered silks, velvet, and colored marble.
The appeal depends on what you want from being away. Restraint offers a break from visual noise; extravagance offers the pleasure of living, briefly, with somebody else’s more adventurous taste.
Neither is easy to get right. Quiet luxury can become an expensive exercise in removing everything memorable. Maximalism can feel like checking into a prop cupboard: materials, craftsmanship and an understanding of the setting matter at either end. More decoration alone won’t give a hotel personality.
Trend #3: Luxury on the Move
Sharon Coleshill on the return of the grand tour.
On 10 May 2027, Belmond’s new overnight journey from Paris to Monaco will follow the Côte d’Azur’s coastal railway towards Monte Carlo. There are quicker ways to reach the Riviera. Few offer quite such a good reason to dress for dinner.
The investment in traveling well extends across rivers, oceans and the skies. Uniworld plans three new river ships for 2027, including S.S. São Rafael on Portugal’s Douro. Vineyards pass, lunch arrives and the suitcase stays unpacked.
Four Seasons’ new 20-day New World Icons private-jet journey will connect destinations including Langkawi, Venice and Iceland from March 2027. Mangrove exploration and glacier snowmobiling appear on the same itinerary; guides, hotels and transfers are arranged throughout. At sea, Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton are also bringing familiar hospitality names to cruising.
On a river ship, you can spend an afternoon watching the vineyards pass. A private-jet itinerary lets you visit places you’d struggle to combine yourself. Either way, the traveling earns its place in the holiday.
Trend #4: Human Expertise in an AI World
Lucy Clifton, CEO, on why AI still hasn’t put travel advisers out of a job.
The hotel is booked. Then Instagram produces somewhere with a better pool or a more secluded beach. An evening disappears into checking whether you have made a terrible mistake.
McKinsey partner Margaux Constantin has described the pressure: “The burden is on me to make sure that I’ve really chosen well.” AI can keep supplying alternatives. A good adviser can explain why the hotel you booked suits you, and why that irresistible alternative involves three transfers.
Responsibility matters, too. Fora co-founder Evan Frank distinguished inspiring a trip from “actually being accountable for a trip”. When a family is spending £50,000, someone needs to stand behind the arrangements.
An adviser who has stayed at the hotel might know that the lovely room in the photograph is above the bar. AI still hasn’t slept in the bed.
That knowledge matters when you’re booking for a particular family. Will they manage a 45-minute connection with three children? Are they happy to drive from the villa every time they want dinner? These are things worth talking through before anyone pays a deposit. And if a flight is cancelled, it helps to have someone who knows the arrangements and can get on with changing them.
Trend #5: Travelmaxxing – Multi Everything
Eleanor Sim on Gen Z’s determination to get more from every trip.
Nonna-maxxing: cultivating the habits of an Italian grandmother. Friction-maxxing: catching your dinner rather than ordering it. Trip-maxxing: economizing on one part of the holiday to splurge on another.
Now Gen Z is embracing travelmaxxing: we want our money and annual leave to stretch beyond a week by the pool. A concert in one city, a train to another and a few beach days before flying home. Collinson research found that 48 per cent of Gen Z travelers visited multiple countries on their last trip.
We’re also happy to save on things we care less about to afford something we really want. Priceline’s US research for 2027 found that 62 per cent would make that trade-off. If we’re out all day, a basic room will do. We might spend the saving on a restaurant we’ve wanted to try for months.
The same person might book a hostel and a five-star hotel within a week. Luxury brands are competing for a particular part of the holiday, rather than assuming someone is a luxury customer throughout.
Trend #6: Passion Travel
Caroline Bondy on the hobby choosing the holiday.
In January, travelers will head to Seoul with their knitting. Based at Hotel Naru, The Knit Retreat’s 2027 trip combines knitting time with Korean craft experiences in Bukchon. For anyone whose enthusiasm for yarn exceeds their companions’ patience, it sounds like an excellent arrangement.
Special-interest holidays have existed for decades. Their reach is widening: Vrbo finds 68 per cent of travelers are likely to take a hobby-focused trip in 2027, while 38 per cent say hobbies influenced their travel more than five years ago. Vogue reports that Much Better Adventures’ skill-based bookings have risen by more than two-thirds over three years.
An interest provides company and purpose. It can also take you further into a destination: The Explorations Company’s Japanese craft itinerary includes ceramics and a visit to woodturner Yasushi Satake’s workshop.
These guests bring their own knowledge. A keen gardener, collector or musician may ask difficult questions. Finding the right specialist matters rather more than adding another activity to the brochure.
Trend #7: Where Health Meets Wellness
Alexandra Harvey on why your next hotel might come with a doctor.
Following Six Senses London's opening with its HUM2N clinic this year, more medical expertise is arriving at resorts in 2027. Lanserhof Marbella is planned for the grounds of Finca Cortesin, with 71 rooms and suites and 2,900 square meters devoted to medicine. Clinique La Prairie’s forthcoming AMAALA resort on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast will combine medical care and a diagnostics lab with a beach club and cooking school.
The appetite is substantial. McKinsey finds up to 60 per cent of consumers across four markets consider healthy ageing a top or very important priority. Energy, independence and staying mentally sharp are powerful reasons to invest in health, including while away.
The appeal is having time to act on advice: discuss results, work with a trainer, learn recipes and establish a routine away from everyday demands. With follow-up care, the stay can begin a longer relationship, giving guests a clearer sense of what they want to work on next.
