From 'Skillcations' to 'Hushpitality': Brands Court Consumers Seeking Enrichment-Driven Travel

Small business takeaway:

• Consumers are reshaping travel around meaning—not just a change of scenery. Trips are increasingly built around learning a skill, following a story (books, TV), or truly unplugging with quiet, low-tech experiences. Three lessons for any business: (1) Sell a clear outcome—rest, connection, self-improvement—not a generic “experience.” (2) Use events and communities to spark demand in overlooked markets. (3) Reframe wellness as practical, measurable progress, not pampering.

When it comes to personal travel, getting away for the sake of a getaway is getting considerably more purposeful.

Coined “whycation” in Hilton’s 2026 Trends Report, travel is increasingly driven by emotional motivations, becoming more about why we are going than where where we are going. “People are traveling with purpose, whether that’s to reconnect, recharge, (re)discover or just take a breath,” said Chris Nassetta, Hilton’s President and CEO, in the report. “It’s a global movement rooted in intentionality, where travel begins not with a destination, but with a motivation.”

That motivation runs the gamut from local cultural immersion to wellness trips designed to extend longevity, to literary tourism, to nature-based retreats, and more. But one thing is clear: meaningful experiences are the overarching trigger in travel planning. 

Second- and third-tier destinations gain appeal—as do music residencies and ‘grocery tourism’ 

As consumers research what experiences they can discover or immerse themselves in that feel connected to their destination, lesser-known locales are benefitting. “The pandemic experience caused people to look into more off-the-beaten path destinations to get away from crowds,” Nicole Mahoney, CEO of Travel Alliance Partnership, told CO—. “A residual of that is they began to explore beyond your typical bucket-list destinations.”

Second- or third-tier destinations—whether lesser-known mountain towns, places that are adjacent to a national or state park, or cities like Detroit or Cleveland—are reporting record numbers of tourism, she continued. 

After visiting friends and family, events are the second-biggest reason people travel, and that’s driving people to concerts or commemorations in different cities, explained Mahoney. “There was the whole Taylor Swift phenomenon where people would go to a city where her concert was even if they had no ticket, just to be a part of it,” she added. “Events also can be a catalyst to future visitation because you gain more awareness of locations. The [April 2024] eclipse is a good example.”

Music residencies are driving travel to more destinations, creating one of the top trends in the Megatrends 2026 report from Skift, the business intelligence platform for the travel and hospitality industries. Beyond Las Vegas and New York, urban hubs like London and Singapore are heating up the competition. Ariana Grande will do a 10-night Eternal Sunshine concert at London’s 02 arena, for example. “The residency model proves a single cultural anchor can generate hundreds of millions in impact, like Bad Bunny's $713 million Puerto Rico run,” Sarah Kopit, Skift’s Editor-in-Chief, told CO—.

More people want to live like locals and even a trip to the grocery store counts. According to Hilton’s report, 77% of survey respondents enjoy grocery store tourism, an offshoot of food tourism. Instead of immersing themselves in local cuisines at restaurants, travelers are increasingly visiting local grocery stores, corner shops, and convenience stores to find exotic produce, locally produced condiments, beverages, sweet treats, or edible souvenirs. The trend is spurred on by TikTok, with millions of grocery tourism posts. 

[Read more: Trend Watchers on 5 Key Trends Set to Impact Business in 2026]

Longevity tourism from menopause management to ‘glowcations’ will drive the wellness travel market

Wellness travel has become much broader than a spa visit, noted Travel Alliance Partnership’s Mahoney. In fact, female travelers are gravitating toward long-term health benefits with the growth of longevity tourism, a holistic blend of wellness and medicine that includes personal health diagnostics.

The longevity movement will play a leading role in the explosive $6.8 trillion wellness market, which is expected to hit $10 trillion by 2029, according to the Global Wellness Summit’s annual trends report. Destinations are transforming from pampering resorts to women’s longevity programs with structured medical-wellness programs.

Several resorts are incorporating health-focused women’s programs into the hospitality experience.

Canyon Ranch’s resort in the Berkshires offers M/Power: Menopause and Perimenopause Retreats that combine traditional and alternative medicine with mental health programs and a personalized menopause plan. Its new location in Austin, Texas, opening later this year, will include a dedicated women’s wellness practice. 

Six Senses resorts offers a Female Wellness program that includes a focus on metabolic health screenings with experts, biometric testing, sleep analysis, continuous glucose monitoring, and strength training. 

Meanwhile, the skin longevity sub trend, a concept that mixes biotech, proactive skin care, and wellness, is on the rise. Booking.com data shows that, in 2026, 80% of travelers are open to booking skin-specific treatments, which it calls “glowcations.”

South Korea has become a center for innovation around skin longevity treatments, but the trend is globalizing, said Kopit. “The real shift is beauty tourism moving from a niche medical play into a mainstream demand engine that shapes airline routes, hotel strategies, and duty-free retail mix,” she said. “Any destination with a credible wellness infrastructure and local beauty heritage has an opening to be successful.”

As consumers’ idea of wellness evolves, so does related tourism. For example, the growing nonalcohol consumer can now fall under a new wellness heading, Mahoney said. 

Driven by Gen Z, the nonalcoholic beverage trend means travel destinations will need to rethink their consumer draw. Wineries, for example, have been known for girls’ getaways, Mahoney continued. “They’ll need to think about what the new girls’ getaway looks like. Gen Z may still visit wine regions, but they’re interested in the production, meeting the farmers, and photography to a greater extent than sipping the wine.”

[Read more: How 3 Startups Are Bringing At-Home Alternatives to Pricey Activities and Services]

Low-stimulation and offline travel experiences provide the retreat more travelers are seeking

A top motivation for leisure travel is to rest and recharge, cited by 56% of survey respondents in Hilton’s report, and this has given rise to what the hotel chain dubs “hushpitality.”

The craving for low-stimulation, peaceful activities can take many forms, including solo travel; silent activities or experiences that nourish the mind, body, and spirit; or quiet experiences carved out on group trips. Silent or calming experiences trending among American travelers include a heightened interest in nature immersion retreats (67%), spiritual retreats (60%), and meditation/silent retreats (56%), says the Hilton report.

“Things are moving so fast people want to unplug, slow down, and have a more meaningful experience,” said Mahoney. She noted an increase in related outdoor tourism and nature-based holidays like hiking or connecting to wildlife.

The Global Wellness Summit also reports interest in nature-based programs as part of a larger physical and mental repair trend. For example, star bathing—quiet, unstructured presence under the stars—is being adopted by wellness resorts worldwide. At Cal-a-Vie Health Spa in California, “galaxy wellness” pairs stargazing with solar hikes. 

And Six Senses offers moonlight meditations and astronomer-guided star-watching at properties including Kanuhura in the Maldives. 

Offline travel or digital detox is a key component in the quest to recharge and disconnect and improve focus. “Being offline is often an important part of the quiet experience,” said Lisa White, Director of Strategic Forecasting for global trendspotting company WGSN, who expects the low-stimulation movement to go more mainstream, especially among younger consumers. Examples include Unplugged’s tech-free cabins and digital detox retreats as well as The Offline Club sponsoring a one-hour reading rave in a park, where hundreds of people read together in silence with their phones turned off.

Literary tourism, ‘pop culting,’ and ‘skillcations’ are among the experiences drawing in travelers

Enrichment, from education to personal discovery, is another driver in selecting travel itineraries. 

Hilton’s data shows that than half (57%) of U.S. travelers express interest in a reading retreat, a concept hotels and destinations are leaning into. 

Hotel Faena Stateside, Miami Beach, for example, installed Es Devlin’s The Library of Us, a floating seaside library with a 20-foot rotating bookshelf housing some 2,500 books that invites visitors to gather, read, and reflect.

“Reading retreats are a huge trend and even beyond that we’re seeing that people want to read a book and then experience places that take place in the book,” said Travel Alliance Partnership’s Mahoney. 

Indeed, literary tourism, currently a $2.4 billion global market that Future Market Insight reports will grow to $3.3 billion by 2034, is booming with destinations like the Louisa May Alcott Orchard House and the Hemingway Home & Museum.

Period drama tourism is another offshoot, according to Conde Nast Traveler’s travel trend list. Novels and films like “Hamnet” as well as new adaptations of “Wuthering Heights” and “Sense and Sensibility” have fans flocking to U.K. areas that appear on screen. 

A related trend, “pop culting”—where travelers visit real life destinations featured in hit TV shows or movies—is being fueled by the experience economy, Jay Richmond, Vice President, Solutions Consulting, for Amadeus, a travel and reservation tech platform, told CO—.

In its 2026 Travel Trends research, Amadeus sees shows like “The Last of Us,” “The White Lotus,” and “Bridgerton” translating directly into travel demand. 

Visit Bath, a tourism arm for Bath, England, estimates “Bridgerton” contributes around £5 million ($6.5 million) a year to the local economy—evidence that streaming fandom is becoming a travel trigger. “Travelers are moving from passive viewing to real-world, location-based experiences tied to the artists and stories they love,” Richmond added.

Amadeus predicts pop culting will continue as it aligns with lasting shifts toward experience-led travel shaped by identity, emotion, and community. The trend “meets these motivations directly by turning screen-based inspiration into shareable, culturally relevant trips,” said Richmond.

“Skillcation” is another emerging buzzy travel term. Hilton’s report shows 72% of travelers expressed a desire to take time off to explore a personal passion, skill, or hobby. Hotels like Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah and Georgia’s Sea Island are leaning in with programs from glassblowing to falconry, respectively.

A desire to discover ancestry or dive into history is also driving travel destinations. Increasingly, cruises are offering genealogy excursions. Regent Seven Seas Cruises, for example, hosts a Spotlight on Heritage with Ancestry trip, hosted by AncestryProGenealogists, the professional services division of Ancestry. The trip offers genealogy consultations and ancestral home visits. In Italy, tour operator My Bella Vita Travel uses government archives to build family trees and follows up with in-person investigation in the towns to create an immersive itinerary. 

Beyond their personal roots, historic sites and events are piquing interest. The Travel Alliance Partnership, for one, has seen a growing number of people expressing interest in Minidoka, a national historic site in the Idaho desert that served as a Japanese internment camp during World War II. “People want to understand history, and how it relates to the world today,” said Mahoney.

‘Every trip has to mean something now’

Purposeful travel is a movement cutting across demographics, but it translates differently by age group. “For Gen Z, it's things like sober cruises and skincare-driven itineraries. For the affluent, it [might be] $1,000-a-day curated access and $10,000 luxury sleeper trains,” said Skift’s Kopit. “The common thread is that passive leisure is dead. Every trip has to mean something now.”

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