The Travel Trends Marketers Can’t Ignore in 2026 (and How to Target the Right Travelers)

Introduction

Trend 1: Experiences Are Driving Travel Decision

In 2026, experiences are no longer a “nice-to-have” itinerary add-on. They are the trip. More consumers are planning travel around live events such as concerts, festivals, and major sporting competitions, using them as the primary reason to travel.

What this changes for marketers:

• Planning windows shift. Travelers may lock in flights and hotels around event dates, creating predictable spikes in intent.
• Destination selection gets reshuffled. Secondary cities can become primary destinations when they host marquee events.
• Companion travel rises. Experiences often mean group decision-making, which influences accommodation, transport, and add-on purchases.

Travel marketing tip: Build event-driven audience strategies that combine experience intent + destination + travel mode (for example: concert travelers likely to book flights + hotel intenders in the host city).

Trend 2: AI Is Redefining Travel Inspiration

Travel discovery is getting routed through conversational interfaces. Travelers are increasingly using AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity for trip inspiration and planning, overtaking traditional sources such as travel agents, newspapers, and guidebooks.

What this changes for marketers:

• The funnel gets less linear. AI tools compress research into faster cycles, meaning people arrive at booking decisions with fewer visible “breadcrumbs.”
• Publisher and SEO pathways weaken in places. A traveler might jump from “ideas” to “shortlist” without visiting the usual websites you rely on for retargeting pools.
• Context becomes the new keyword. The traveler’s prompt (family-friendly, walkable, near stadium, budget-flexible) signals more than a single search term ever did.

Travel marketing tip: Use third-party audiences to stay visible even when discovery happens off your owned channels. Align creative with the traveler’s decision logic (why they’re traveling, not just where).

Trend 3: Global Travel Demand Continues to Rise

Volume is back and still climbing. IATA forecasts 5.2 billion passengers will travel by air in 2026, up 4.4% year over year. That demand creates tailwinds across airlines, hotels, rentals, attractions, and the entire travel-adjacent ecosystem.

What this changes for marketers:

• Competition intensifies. When demand is strong, acquisition costs often rise too.
• Travel audiences fragment. More travelers does not mean one “travel” segment. It means more micro-intents: weekend getaways, long road trips, premium flight classes, cruise planners, adventure travelers, family vacationers, and more.
• International intent shows up earlier. More travelers are comparing cross-border options, giving destination and travel brands a longer runway to influence choices before booking.

Travel marketing tip: Shift from generic “travelers” targeting to layered segmentation: in-market signals + preferences+ past purchase behavior.

Trend 4: Sports Are a Key Part of the Travel Experience

Sports travel is expanding beyond fandom into cultural participation. Expedia reports 57% of travelers say they’re likely to attend a local sporting event while traveling, rising to 68% among Gen Z and Millennials.

What this changes for marketers:

• Sports becomes a proxy for experience-driven travel. Even travelers who are not “sports tourists” may still plan to attend something local.
• It creates premium upsell moments. Tickets, hospitality, local transport, restaurants, and add-on activities cluster around these events.
• It broadens destination opportunity. Local sporting culture (not just mega-events) can motivate travel choices.

Travel marketing tip: Pair sports-interest audiences with destination intent and accommodation preferences to capture travelers when they are building their trips around the experience.

Why Third-Party Data Matters More in 2026

These trends all point to the same reality: Traveler intent is more distributed, faster-moving, and harder to capture using only first-party signals.

Third-party audience data helps marketers:

1. Find intent before the booking happens on your site. Travel decisions often start elsewhere (publisher content, social, video, or AI-powered discovery). You need reach beyond owned properties to influence early.
2. Add precision to broad reach channels. CTV, DOOH, and audio are powerful for travel, but only if you can tie delivery to real intent signals and preferences. Partners like Eyeota can enable activation across channels like mobile, display, audio, CTV, gaming, and DOOH.
3. Reach travelers at scale without guessing. When AI compresses research behavior, you cannot rely on a single retargeting pool or a narrow set of site visits. You need dependable audiences built on persistent signals.

In short: Third-party data is how you stay relevant when travelers do not follow a neat path.

Tips for Targeting Travel Audiences in 2026

Here are practical ways to build campaigns around the traveler signals that matter now.

Target by accommodation type. Use audiences that reflect lodging intent and preference, from broad hotel intent to specific lodging types. Audience segments include those interested in:

• Boutique hotel brands
• Bed & breakfasts
• Hostels
• Budget hotels
• Airbnbs

Target by travel type. Travel “type” is often the best creative driver. Audience segments include those interested in:

• Active adventure
• Business travel
• Family travel
• Cruises
• Campers
• City explorers
• Specific countries, states, or cities
• Beaches and islands
• Historical spots
• Theme parks

Target by destination. Destination targeting allows you to reach consumers demonstrating interest in specific regions, cities, and experiential destinations. Audience segments include those interested in:

• Specific countries, states, or cities
• Beaches and islands
• Historical spots
• Theme parks

Target by transport type. This approach helps you find audiences based on how they like to get around while traveling. Audience segments include those interested in:

• Flying first class
• Renting a car
• Traveling in an RV
• Using rideshare services

Target using past travel purchases and booking behavior. Past purchase behavior is one of the strongest indicators of future intent, especially for frequent travelers. Audience segments include those with historical spend across:

• Specific locations
• Specific travel agencies
• Specific reasons for travel
• Specific modes of booking
  
  

Where Eyeota Fits: Travel Audiences Built for Modern Activation

Eyeota’s 2026 Travel Audience Playbook is designed to help marketers identify and reach travelers based on interests, intent, transaction signals, and travel preferences, not just broad demographics. With Eyeota, you can activate curated travel audiences such as:

• General travel enthusiasts and in-market travelers
• Destination and seasonal travelers
• Airline, hotel, cruise, and transport audiences
• Booking and comparison-site audiences
• Past purchasers and frequent travelers
• And much more

Then, you can deploy those segments across major platforms to reach travelers on the channels where travel is actually influenced: CTV, mobile, display, social, audio, DOOH, and more.

Experiences-driven itineraries, AI-shaped planning, rising global demand, and sports-fueled travel are not isolated trends. Together, they signal a new operating environment for travel marketing in 2026: Intent is plentiful, but it is fragmented and fast.

Third-party audience data is how marketers keep pace, moving beyond guesswork to reach travelers with the right message at the right moment, across channels and throughout the journey.

To see the full set of travel audiences, download Eyeota’s Travel Audience Guide for 2026.