For years, the ideal holiday was measured by how much you could fit in. More flights, more landmarks, more experiences squeezed into fewer days.
But that mindset is shifting, particularly among younger Australians, with 44 per cent now most drawn to slow travel and staying longer in one place.
Ben Whitmore, East Coast Car Rentals CMO, said the change was increasingly visible in how Australians were planning their getaways.
“People are still travelling, but the way they define a ‘good trip’ has changed. We’re seeing more customers build holidays around flexibility rather than fixed plans. The car becomes less about ticking off destinations and more about giving people the freedom to slow down and take the trip at their own pace,” Mr Whitmore said.
The shift is closely tied to changing attitudes toward wellbeing. East Coast Car Rentals research shows 95 per cent of Australians under 35 now see the primary purpose of a holiday as returning home mentally refreshed, rather than ticking off a list of sights.
With burnout a growing conversation in everyday working life, holidays are being reframed as a chance to properly reset rather than pack in as much as possible.
Constant connectivity, hybrid work arrangements and the expectation of always being available have made genuine disconnection harder to achieve in daily life, making unstructured travel time more valuable.
Mr Whitmore said this was translating into more spontaneous and flexible travel behaviour.
“People are planning less rigidly. There’s more openness in how the trip unfolds once they arrive. That flexibility is really what allows the ‘do nothing’ style of travel to work,” he said.
What is emerging is a different way of measuring value in travel. Rather than judging a holiday by how much was done, more younger Australians are judging it by how they feel when they return, less exhausted, more reset and with more mental space than when they left.
