Somewhere in the last decade, travel became a race against time.
By 2016, Instagram had gone mainstream and a new travel reflex set in: go, post, move on.
The act of going somewhere – once a source of wonder – became a checklist assembled from a thousand borrowed itineraries. We arrive having already “seen” the destination through feeds and lists, then measure the place against the image.
If it doesn’t look like it did online, we’re disappointed. If it looks exactly as expected, it barely registers on the wonder scale.
At scale, over tourism is straining beloved destinations, stretching local economies and eroding the cultural richness that made these places special.
According to UN Tourism, international tourist arrivals increased by 4% in 2025, returning to pre-pandemic patterns. The World Tourism Barometer, published in January 2026, estimates 1.52 billion international overnight visitors in 2025 – nearly 60 million more than the previous year.
In cities like Barcelona, Venice and Santorini, measures such as capping visitor numbers or encouraging off-peak travel are steps in the right direction, but not sufficient.
A Turning Point
The industry still measures travel by destinations and volume – where people go, how many, how long, how much they spend. Those still matter. But we’d be short-sighted to miss what’s shifting underneath: the why of travel.
You hear it in the questions travellers are starting to ask. Not: How do I see it all in one trip? But: What’s worth slowing down for?
I co-founded Fernwayer to curate travel experiences, having seen early signs of this shift. The most enduring parts of travel are rarely the hotel room, the logistics, or the stars. Those comforts, while appreciated, fade quickly – because they mirror what travellers already have at home.
What lingers are the things you can’t replicate: the stories, a different rhythm of life, the tug of human connection.
Moments that require time, proximity and conversation – a chef in Rome recreating his Nonna’s recipes while describing how she raised her family; a fisherman on the Venetian lagoon sharing a glimpse of a lifetime shaped by tides; a shadow puppeteer in Istanbul keeping centuries-old epics alive for a modern audience.
Experiences Over Things
Travellers are no longer just valuing these human moments after the fact – they are designing trips around them from the start.
Instead of picking a destination and filling in activities, many are choosing the experience first and letting that shape where and how they travel.
Slower, smaller travel is not a nostalgic ideal; it is a structural response to overcrowded destinations and standardised, uninspiring experiences.
In Andalusia, travellers may join a local brotherhood for a day of the El Rocío pilgrimage – walking sandy paths from dawn to night, as songs are sung and meals shared.
In Sardinia’s Ogliastra region, a Blue Zone, they might spend a day with a goatherd, making cheese and culurgiones. Or they may be regaled by a professional storyteller in Marrakesh who is reviving the Hakawati tradition.
These encounters often anchor a trip, with people marking milestones around them. They seek the opposite of bucket list tourism – experiences that are slower, harder to photograph, but impossible to forget.
A 2024 McKinsey & Co. report finds that travellers increasingly centre the planning process around experiences…sometimes before selecting a destination.
More than half of Gen Z respondents surveyed said they prioritise experiences over possessions, cutting back on flights, accommodation, or dining before giving up something that feels emotionally or culturally enriching.
From Scale to Substance
To support this shift, the industry must adapt. Moving toward slower, experience-driven travel requires more than marketing – it demands changes in how experiences are surfaced, sold and supported.
Today, discovery is fragmented. Online platforms present thousands of listings with little context about who hosts an experience, what it contributes to a community, or why it matters.
Offline, access often depends on personal networks and gatekeepers – a concierge’s favourites or a circle of guides a travel advisor has vetted. High trust, yes. But inherently limited when travellers’ interests, timing and “fit” vary widely.
Booking experiences should be as seamless as reserving a hotel room or a table. But the experience itself should remain shaped by people tied to the culture, craft and community, supported by clear standards, immersive storytelling, fair economics for hosts and transparent expectations for travellers.
The future of travel will be defined as much by what travellers take away as by what they leave behind. We’re at an inflection point – a return to travel’s deeper purpose and to the wonder of going somewhere for the first time.
Above: Vinitaa Jayson
