Travel is still firmly on the priority list in 2026, but travelers are becoming more selective about how they spend their time and money. American Express Travel’s 2026 Global Travel Trends Report shows a guest who wants more from every trip: more meaning, more participation, more flexibility, and more stories worth bringing home. That shift matters for hotels. The opportunity is no longer just to provide a place to stay near the experience. The hotel can become part of the experience itself, whether that means extending a milestone trip, connecting guests with hands-on local activities, helping them discover something unexpected, or giving them a better way to taste the destination.

A few numbers make the direction fairly clear:

40% of global respondents plan to spend more on travel in 2026 than last year.
74% of Millennials and Gen Z surveyed say travel is a “non-negotiable” expense.
64% of Millennials and Gen Z surveyed would take a job with fewer benefits if it gave them more flexibility to travel.
75% of Millennials and Gen Z surveyed plan to arrive at the airport early so they can enjoy lounge amenities.
_{Credit: American Express Travel}

The demand is there. The more interesting question is what travelers expect in return.

Travel Is Becoming More Deliberate

The 2026 report focuses on how travelers are making their trips feel more personal and more worthwhile.

They’re extending milestone celebrations.
They’re looking for activities that teach them something.
They’re leaving room in their itineraries for discoveries they didn’t plan.
They’re seeking out local foods that tell them something about the destination.
That creates a useful opportunity for hotels because most of these behaviors happen around the stay, not separately from it.
The hotel can either participate in that experience or remain the place guests happen to sleep while someone else does.

One of those positions is considerably more interesting.

01 / Miles on Milestones

Celebration Travel Is Getting Longer

Milestone travel is becoming a bigger part of the trip calendar, and guests aren’t necessarily treating the celebration itself as the entire vacation. According to the report,

66% of global respondents plan to take a trip in 2026 to celebrate someone else’s milestone,
(including destination weddings, birthdays, family reunions, and other major occasions)
82% of global respondents plan to build buffer days around the main celebration
72% plan to extend the trip by at least three to four days.

That last one is a very clear length-of-stay opportunity. Among Millennials and Gen Z extending milestone trips, the most common motivations include spending more time with family and friends, exploring the destination, and experiencing the location on their own terms.

What Hotels Can Do

Hotels should stop treating milestone travelers as a single event night. Build pre- and post-event offers around the celebration itself. A wedding guest staying Friday and Saturday may be willing to arrive Wednesday if the hotel gives them a reason to. A family reunion can become a four-night destination experience. A milestone birthday can grow into a full itinerary.

Hotels can support this with:

• Pre- and post-event stay extensions
• Multi-night pricing
• Group room configurations
• Family and friend add-on experiences
• Pre-arrival itinerary planning
• Local dining and activity partnerships
• Flexible arrival and departure options

The revenue opportunity is straightforward: turn the event into the anchor, not the entire trip.

02 / Sight-Doing

Travelers Want to Participate, Not Just Observe

Passive sightseeing is losing some ground to hands-on experiences. The report found that

79% of Millennials and Gen Z surveyed are likely to seek out local workshops or destination-specific activities in 2026.
76% of global respondents believe the skills they gain while traveling stay with them longer than a material souvenir.
Among Millennials and Gen Z, 69% say creating something with their hands is one of the most rewarding parts of travel,
while 82% say learning a new skill makes a trip more memorable.

That might mean a tortilla-making class in Mexico City, a fragrance workshop in Paris, or another experience that allows the traveler to leave with something more useful than a photograph.

What Hotels Can Do

This is tailor-made for independent hotels. Properties don’t need to build a pottery studio next to the fitness center. They need better local partnerships.

Hotels can connect guests with:

• Cooking classes
• Ceramics or art workshops
• Photography walks
• Cocktail or wine classes
• Local craft demonstrations
• Surf, ski, sailing, or outdoor instruction
• Gardening or farm experiences
• Fashion, design, or fragrance workshops

And those experiences can become part of the hotel’s commercial strategy rather than simply appearing on a concierge list. Package them. Pre-sell them. Feature them in pre-arrival communication. Build them into rate plans. Use them as content. The strongest guest experience may already exist five blocks away.

03 / Lore Chasing

Travelers Want Better Stories

The report describes a traveler who isn’t just collecting destinations. They’re collecting stories.

87% of global respondents like to leave room in their itinerary for unexpected local discoveries.
76% say they’re likely to do something adventurous or outside their comfort zone while traveling.

That number rises to 86% among Millennials and Gen Z surveyed. Younger travelers are particularly drawn to experiences that feel distinct.

83% of Millennials and Gen Z surveyed prioritize unique, authentic experiences over popular tourist attractions.
82% say they’re likely to do something completely out of the ordinary simply because it will make a good story.

That is an important distinction. Travelers are not necessarily asking for more activities. They’re asking for experiences that feel less interchangeable.

What Hotels Can Do

Hotels should become better curators. Not another generic “Top 10 Things to Do” list copied from a destination website. Build recommendations with an actual point of view.

Highlight:

• The tiny restaurant with six tables
• The neighborhood bakery that sells out by 10 AM
• A hidden architectural detail nearby
• A local tradition guests wouldn’t otherwise know about
• A niche museum
• An unusual day trip
• A historic building with a story
• A local character worth meeting
• An experience that requires a little effort but delivers something memorable

The report also notes strong interest among Millennials and Gen Z in unusual accommodation and transportation experiences, with 91% expressing interest in one for a future trip, including luxury rail and converted historical spaces. That reinforces something independent hotels should already know: distinctive beats standardized when the guest is looking for something worth talking about.

04 / Snackpacking

Food Travel Is Getting Smaller, Faster, and More Local

Dining has always been a major part of travel, but the 2026 report highlights a more casual version of culinary tourism.

Travelers increasingly want local snacks, regional specialties, and food experiences that can be discovered throughout the day rather than only through a formal restaurant reservation.

89% of Millennials and Gen Z surveyed say it is important to leave room in their itinerary to enjoy local snacks
60% of global respondents often or always purchase local snacks or food items specific to the destination.

Why?

66% cite trying something unavailable at home
45% say supporting local businesses is part of the appeal.

What Hotels Can Do? Hotels can make local food discovery dramatically easier.

1. Create a curated snack map.
2. Stock minibars with destination-specific products.
3. Offer locally made welcome amenities.
4. Partner with neighborhood bakeries, markets, food stalls, coffee roasters, breweries, confectioners, or specialty shops.
5. Build a “taste the neighborhood” package.
6. Feature a rotating local maker in the lobby.
7. The goal isn’t to turn every hotel into a food hall.
8. It’s to give guests easy access to the flavors they came to experience.
9. And unlike many larger guest-experience initiatives, this one can start relatively small.

The Bigger Signal: Guests Want Participation

There’s a clear progression across the 2024, 2025, and 2026 reports. Travelers still care deeply about experience, but the definition of experience is getting more specific. They don’t simply want to see something. They want to participate. They want to extend the celebration. Learn the skill. Find the hidden place. Try the snack. Come home with a story. That distinction matters for hotels because participation creates more opportunities for the property to influence the stay. A hotel can facilitate those moments before arrival, during the stay, and sometimes even after departure.

Four Ideas Hotels Can Steal Right Now

1. The Milestone Extension

Create an offer specifically for guests attending weddings, birthdays, reunions, and celebrations. Add a preferred extension rate for nights before or after the event, then pair it with a flexible itinerary of local activities. The event gets them there. The experience gets them to stay longer.

2. The Local Workshop Series

Partner with local makers or experts to offer rotating workshops. Think ceramics, cooking, cocktails, photography, design, gardening, or neighborhood history. Run them weekly, seasonally, or on demand. The hotel doesn’t need to own the expertise. It needs to make the expertise easy to access.

3. The Lore List

Replace the generic local guide with a tightly curated list of experiences guests are unlikely to discover on their own. Keep it short. Five places worth walking farther for will usually be more useful than fifty things pulled from a search result.

4. The Snackpack

Create a locally curated snack box for arrival, departure, road trips, or gifting. Feature regional producers and explain the story behind each item. It’s part amenity, part retail, part destination storytelling. Conveniently, all three departments can take credit.

What Revenue and Marketing Teams Should Watch

These trends create commercial opportunities, but only if hotels measure whether guests actually respond.

Useful metrics might include:

• Length of stay around group and milestone dates
• Pre- and post-event extension conversion
• Package attachment rate
• Local experience bookings
• Ancillary revenue per occupied room
• Pre-arrival upsell conversion
• Partner referral revenue
• Retail and minibar revenue
• Guest engagement with destination content
• Social mentions tied to specific hotel experiences
• Repeat bookings from milestone or group travelers

You don’t need to build something for every trend. You need to identify the behaviors that naturally fit the hotel, then test whether they improve guest satisfaction, revenue, or both.

Final Thoughts

The 2026 traveler isn’t simply looking for more. They’re looking for something more specific. A longer celebration. A skill they can take home. A story nobody else on the trip has. A food they’ll spend six months trying to find again. For independent hotels, that creates an advantage. Smaller properties can move faster, build more interesting partnerships, tell more specific stories, and create experiences without waiting for someone several organizational charts away to approve them. The hotels that win won’t necessarily offer the most. They’ll give guests better reasons to remember what they did while they were there.