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Travelers desire experiences – but brands risk falling behind

Editor’s note: Alex Holmes is director at Shape Insight, U.K. 

To better understand the future of travel, Shape Insight surveyed 2,000 U.K. travelers who took a holiday of at least five nights in 2024 and plan to travel again this year (2025). The findings reveal a projected £45 billion in summer vacation spend, highlighting a major opportunity for engagement.

Our research also found that £22 billion is spent on experiences alone (think meals, sports events, etc.). Travel experiences are the future of travel.

So why do brands, specifically travel and hospitality brands, fail to fully capitalize on travelers’ appetite for travel experiences? 

Let’s explore some of the current missed opportunities and what steps brands can take to capitalize on them.

Travel experiences are sold predominantly to affluent travelers

Currently, travel experiences are often exclusively marketed to more affluent travelers – driven by high-end travel companies such as Audley Travel, Abercrombie & Kent and Quintessentially. And it makes sense. If you’re looking to sell a £14,000 safari in Kenya, it’s an easier sell if your end target has an assumed high disposable income, right?

However, our research has found that the appeal of travel experiences transcends demographics and socioeconomic backgrounds. Over half of the Gen Z travelers we surveyed are prepared to pay an estimated £1500 on just experiences while away on their summer holidays. 

While this might sound like a small amount in comparison to £14,000 on safari in Kenya, the value lies in the economy of scale. There are currently 7.8 million Gen Z in the U.K. alone who are 18+. Even if just 15% of this total spent a couple of hundred pounds, it would yield a brand a significant return on investment.

Opportunity: For a brand like Jet2holidays, this presents a huge opportunity as they’re already selling package holidays to Gen Z (i.e., flight and accommodation). Why not take it a step further and provide Gen Z travelers with a range of tailored experiences they can tap into while they’re booking their trip?

This could be tickets to a concert, a matchday experience at one of the country's top football teams or perhaps a one-day excursion to a neighboring town with a wide range of activities already planned.

Brands target only one type of travel experience

Since the birth of package holidays, travel and hospitality brands have focused on a single travel experience to sell holidays – i.e., it’s all about entertainment! This approach has remained true for over 75 years.

However, this approach relies on two incorrect myths:

  • The idea that during our summer holiday, we do the same thing day in and day out. 
  • That groups of travelers (e.g., families) want the same thing.

To debunk these myths, we leaned into Pine and Gilmore’s experience economy model. From this, we’ve been able to develop four summer holiday experiential mind-sets:

  • Entertainment lovers
  • Learning enthusiasts
  • Immersive explorers
  • Adventure seekers

This then allowed us to understand that while a key mind-set drives their initial booking, other types of experiences speak to them. As shown below, for a learning enthusiast, while their dominant mind-set is education, having an esthetic experience is also important to them during their trip. 

But herein lies the challenge – can a hospitality or travel brand genuinely deliver against these diverse needs? No. This is because of the gold dilution effect – in short, the more you do, the less credible you become. 

Opportunity: But there is a way to overcome the gold dilution effect – brand collaborations. For many cohorts, brand authenticity is important. This means it’s better for a brand to partner with another brand that has genuine credibility within a specific sector/area, versus pretending they’re able to deliver it.

Collabs are also a great way for brands to tap into demographics that may not have been aware of their brand. If you’re looking for inspiration, collabs by Airbnb and Barbie or Amex and Uber are examples of how to do this. 

Harnessing the value of in-the-moment experiences  

According to our study, over 50% surveyed book their summer holiday six months in advance. However, we’ve also found that early booking behavior is defined by securing airline tickets and hotel reservations, and very little else. 

Most travelers arrive at their destination with a vague idea of what they will do (unless travelling on an organized holiday), but truth be told, nothing is locked in. 

Opportunity: There is a significant opportunity for hotel brands such as IHG, Hilton and Marriott to capitalize on this tardiness and empower in-the-moment experiential booking.

For example, a traveler wakes up one morning and wants their culture fix. They log into their hotel app and ask their AI assistant to build them a detailed itinerary of what to do, what to see and where to eat – from breakfast to dinner time. Each one of these suggestions is linked to the hotel brand either by being sub-brands or suppliers that are levied a charge to be part of the chosen group of suppliers. 

Better still, this behavior is ingrained in us humans due to loss aversion and present bias.

Don’t miss your opportunity

There’s still time to tap into travelers’ in-the-moment appetite, but if that window closes, 2026 beckons. With projected spend rising to £23.1bn, now is the moment to consider how your brand will shape future travel experiences. It’s an opportunity well worth the investment.

Methodology note 

This study was conducted among a nationally representative sample of U.K. residents (N=2,000 completes). All respondents met the following criteria: they had taken at least one trip abroad in 2024, participated in a summer holiday (June–September 2024) lasting a minimum of five nights, and were likely to travel abroad again in 2025. In addition, participants were required to be the main or joint decision maker for household holiday planning.

Fieldwork was conducted at the end of 2024.