Q:        What’s quiet, blue, short, last-minute and appeals to your granny?

A:         The top travel trends for 2026

Star-spotting, set-jetting (as seen on screen) and digital detox holidays remain popular and prove that previous travel trend-casting was spot on. This year, Sunsail, the global yacht charter company, has been cross-checking current trends with its own bookings and tracked a few of the major global operators’ travel research to see what other major patterns are emerging. 

Sunsail’s expert holiday planners and Katrina Lawson, Head of Brand and Acquisitions at Sunsail, reveal the main travel and tourism trends for 2026 include blue health escapes, shorter holidays, last-minute bookings, and multi-generational travel.

Recent research from Skyscanner finds that 84% of travellers plan to travel the same, or more, in 2026, with an emphasis on purposeful trips that reflect personal passions, self-expression, and immersive experiences. 

Booking.com says that Silence will be golden in 2026, as travellers look to swap the noise of daily life and distractions of an overstimulating world for the soothing stillness of nature to restore their sense of calm. 

Online searches for ‘quiet holidays in the sun’ soared by 100% in the last year and with global wellness tourism already estimated to be valued at over $1 trillion, blue health escapes, also known as blue mind breaks, are a distinct wellness travel trend that is destined to become increasingly prevalent in the next year ahead. 

Referring to the psychological and cognitive benefits of being by the water, including stress reduction, improved mood and enhanced focus, more people are gravitating towards experiences like sailing, which offer strong connections to the ocean with the opportunity to island hop among some of the world’s hidden gems. It comes as over-tourism spikes in popular travel destinations, and more than a third of travellers say they now actively seek out quieter destinations, with plans to visit popular places only in shoulder season.

Short breaks

While people want purposeful, value-driven holidays, shorter trips are in demand. According to Sunsail’s booking data, there is a shift towards shorter sailing holiday durations. Seven-night bookings remain the most popular, but 6-day bookings are up 38%, and 5-day bookings are up 24% year on year (YoY), both growing faster than Sunsail’s total YoY booking growth. 

This suggests travellers are increasingly choosing flexible, shorter getaways rather than ten-day or two-week trips. This can be for a myriad of reasons, including financial constraints, a desire for more frequent, less stressful breaks and more time to spend at home during annual leave. For example, people are taking two weeks’ annual leave, spending a week at home and a week on holiday.

Last minute booking

Sunsail’s booking data shows strong last-minute holiday bookings for December and January, as people take advantage of more remote working post-Covid and young travellers increasingly favour spontaneity as a new form of freedom. Online searches support this trend, with a 69% increase in “last minute sun holidays” being booked in the same three-month period.

Multi-generational family travel

This is more than just grandparents helping out parents with grandchildren when abroad; younger people are cleverly using family trips to share costs, split responsibilities and actually spend quality time together. 

These insights reflect The Globe Trender’s ‘Whycation’ travel trend, which predicts that by 2026, holidays will be less about ticking off bucket-list destinations and more about using travel to strengthen relationships with friends, family or even oneself.

Alongside this, Family Holidays 2.0 are on the rise. With many young adults in their 20s still living with their parents or returning to the family home after university, and often unable to fund big trips, parents are increasingly inviting their grown-up children on their holidays.

South Africans reflect the global travel patterns

According to various online searches, South Africans are no different to other travellers as they are forecast to match or exceed 2025 levels for booking more trips (domestic, short and long haul), more last minute get-aways and more immersive and meaningful holidays with their families.