The Biggest Change in Travel is Intent
Some patterns I’m seeing beneath the growth headlines
I’ve been reading a recent McKinsey report on where travel is headed. It’s written for private equity, but the signal underneath is useful for anyone actually running a hospitality or tourism business.
The short version:
Travel is growing. But not in the way many people assume.
What’s accelerating isn’t volume alone.
It’s intent.
Travelers aren’t just looking for trips anymore. They’re looking for experiences that do more than one thing at once: rest and connection, adventure and comfort, escape and meaning.
That shift matters.
McKinsey points out that the fastest growth is happening in the higher end of the market. Luxury, premium, and curated experiences are outpacing the broader travel industry. Not because people suddenly want gold-plated faucets, but because they’re willing to pay for clarity, ease, and feeling taken care of.
This isn’t about excess.
It’s about relief.
You see it when someone chooses the quieter place over the famous one.
When they pay a little more just so nothing feels confusing.
When “I don’t have to think” becomes the real value.
Another thing that stood out: travelers are increasingly drawn to nontraditional places and less crowded experiences. Not always remote. Just more thoughtful. Less manufactured. Less chaotic.
That should catch your attention.
Because it means the competitive set isn’t just “other hotels” anymore. It’s every experience that promises restoration, certainty, and coherence in a noisy world.
And that changes the job.
The opportunity right now isn’t simply to sell rooms, tours, or packages. It’s to design experiences that actually hold together as a system.
Where expectations are clear and choices feel intentional.
Where the experience makes sense from start to finish.
McKinsey also calls out how technology and data are shaping expectations. Planning, personalization, flexibility, and add-ons are no longer “nice to have.” They’re becoming table stakes.
Not because travelers love tech.
But because tech, used well, removes friction.
Here’s what I take away from all of this.
The future of travel doesn’t belong to whoever shouts the loudest or scales the fastest. It belongs to the businesses that understand this shift. And respond with restraint and clarity.
If you’re still competing primarily on volume or scale, you’re likely competing in yesterday’s market.
The work now looks more like this:
Build modular experiences instead of one-size-fits-all offerings.
Make it easy for people to choose what matters to them.
Invest in predictability, not perfection.
Design for how the whole experience feels, not just how it looks.
This applies whether you run a boutique hotel, a destination, a travel brand, or any experience-based business.
People aren’t just buying a trip.
They’re buying a sense that someone has thought this through.
And in the next phase of travel, that may be the most valuable offering of all.
For Further Reading
McKinsey’s Travel industry trends and the opportunity for private equity