2016 is half way over! These travel trends came in strong this year and here to stay.
With the advent of Facebook’s ‘Oculus Rift’ which hit the market in early 2016, you’ll be able to travel by headset alone. For instance, Marriot Hotels recently introduced Vroom Service, a feature that allows guest to order VR headsets en-suite and take interactive trips to Chile, Rwanda and Beijing. The use of VR to experience a destination before buying your flight will be a big hit.
With fewer Americans than ever taking vacation days, more young professionals are opting to extend their business travel by taking a few vacation days on either side of a trip (especially for far flung locales).
No, we’re not talking about a messenger app – we’re talking about hotel concierges, baggage handlers, and even bartenders.
Take Spencer, a 6’2” bionic man with external cameras, sensors and laser beams, now helps airport passengers check-in and navigate unfamiliar airports (to access Spencer: enter your flight info on Spencer’s touchscreen, and he’ll escort you to your gate, baggage carousel or customer service counter.)
Although it may not feel like it, airline tickets were eight percent cheaper in 2015 (the busy summer months of July and August saw a 13 and 10 percent decrease, respectively) and Expedia predicts they will continue to drop in 2016.
Group travel has had a makeover from its clichéd inauthentic excursion past. Travel companies are now creating new, bespoke travel itineraries using on-the-ground expertise for highly curated insider experiences and immersive trips that solo travelers would never experience. For instance, El Camino Travel crafts immersive trips to destinations like Nicaragua, Colombia and Mexico City for the boho-chic crowd – they even include a photographer so you can document your trip without spending excessive time on your smartphone.
The continued evolution of technology has made it possible for companies to know more about your likes, dislikes, future plans and well, everything else. Google Travel can analyze your past Internet searches and behavior and use geolocation to serve up destination specific restaurants, hotspots, events, and more. Although it can be unsettling that a search engine knows more about your preferences than some of your closest friends, what could be better than booking a trip that you (otherwise didn’t realize) you needed?
According to data, there’s a greater change your long lost luggage will find its way back to you this year. In 2014, there were 7.3 bags mishandled per thousand. A new resolution set by the International Air Transport Association hopes to reduce that number to 43 by 2018. To reach this end, airlines are deploying new tactics for more efficient bag tagging, inserting permanent RFID chips and GPS.
Hotels may actually become a thing of the past. More and more travellers are starting to use vacation rentals for increased comfort, privacy, and savings. Emerging vacation rentals websites like HomeEscape are making it easier for users to find vacation rentals worldwide. Despite some recent regulations in certain cities, the vacation rental industry has continued to grow steadily.
HomeEscape is a vacation rental website that charges no listing fees or booking fees. Check out some of our most popular destinations:
