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TRAVEL TRENDS

2024

Introduction

In 2024, we’ll be approaching the world with a renewed sense of focus; choosing to travel in ways that truly count – pursuing everything from wellness and togetherness to pilgrimages and passions. These trends reflect the big themes that’ll shape the journeys we’ll take over the months and seasons ahead. Let’s get out there.

01

Group Therapy

Getting together over going it alone; that’s the takeaway. In our increasingly disconnected world, friends and loved ones are choosing to get together in new and different ways, choosing to bond over seminal shared experiences out in the world.

At Black Tomato, bookings for eight or more people have increased by 35%. They now account for 30% of all the bookings we’re making, well into 2024. That’s why we launched See You in the Moment, our new take on mind-expanding, life-changing group travel. Being together, seeing together.

And it’s making waves in the wider world of travel. For The Leading Hotels of the World, “group bookings of three rooms or more grew 33% from last year [2022]”. For travel technology platform Amadeus, group travel bookings are up by 18% – with 12 million more hotel rooms booked in the first half of 2023 than the same period in 2022.

02

Finding new frontiers

Frontiers are geographical, but they’re also psychological. This year, travelers are going to confront both – seeking untrodden destinations while pushing their own personal barriers. Camping beneath the stars in untrammelled stretches of wilderness. Trekking the sacred path of the Kumano Kodo in Japan. This is where the physical and the emotional shake hands.

The Mitre Peninsula – located in Argentina’s remote southernmost province – will, in 2024, embody a whole new expedition for us.

The same goes for Peru, where we’re taking travelers to under-the-radar places and charting entirely new routes once they get there. Like rafting remote stretches of the Urubamba Valley (a journey that James and Rob, two of our own, undertook earlier this year).

03

Generation passion

A passion shared is a relationship squared. Families who share their habits and hobbies tend to be all the stronger, and this will certainly shape how we travel in 2024. Children are getting their parents excited about what excites them. Older generations are passing down their pastimes in turn – with everything from pottery and sculpture to cooking and climbing.

Martial arts play a big role in this. Rooted in discipline, ritual, and meditation, where some of our travelling families have studied the art of bushido together in the hallowed halls of Asakuso Dojo, Japan.

Elsewhere, there’s a lot of continued enthusiasm for Field Trip – our take on immersive educational travel. Some families are setting off to study limestone sculpture alongside renowned craftsmen in Puglia, while others – with muddy boots – are learning about sustainable farming practices in Denmark. It’s a wide world.

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04

Memory lanes

Retracing the past is going to be big in the future of 2024. Much of this stems from a renewed interest in personal and family history, where travelers are inspired to plan trips based on journeys undertaken by their forebears. These trips are slower and more purposeful. They’re fuelled by nostalgia.

Recently, one of our travelers discovered a photograph of their grandparents holidaying in Lake Como. They came to us, with their partner, to help map a journey that would shadow their original route.

The resulting journey had lots of time for deep breaths and moments of reflection. When they returned, they felt they were more engaged and excited about the places they made contact with. It was a journey in the present, but it was also a journey into the past.

05

Reductionism; do less with more

Wellness is changing – moving away from the years-long obsession with the ‘holistic’ toward its singular opposite. Now, travelers are seeking the secrets of longevity in a more approachable way. Rather than embarking on dramatic overhauls, we’re addressing single key pillars of our wellness; making it both targeted and more accessible.

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Post-pandemic, people are craving slower and more focused travel; addressing things like insomnia, anxiety, and diet. This year, we’ll see people choosing to pursue more tailored solutions, from breath workshops and psilocybin retreats to sleep clinics and meditation masterclasses.

At Black Tomato, our Bring it Back service is firmly rooted in breaking down precise areas of coveted self-improvement, paired to the destinations and the people who are doing it best.

06

Soak in the silence

In a world increasingly polluted by noise, it’s a rare luxury to find absolute silence. This year, travelers are going to plug in their noise-cancelling headphones and set off for the quieter side, hoping to reap the therapeutic benefits of lower volumes.

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National parks provide just such places, and travelers are looking to lock themselves away within the gentle stirrings of nature. This idea is supported by the important work of Quiet Parks International, who’ve built a movement to preserve the silence of national park systems.

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Other destinations have a whispering feel. Like Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. Our own Get Lost service has seen a notable uptick in popularity, fuelled by this trend – tapping into the psychology behind disconnection. The same goes for our signature Blink camps, set up in some of the world’s most remote destinations.

07

Modern-day pilgrimages

As the world’s appetite becomes more nuanced, travelers are seeking out specific tastes, dishes, chefs, and menus to dine out on.

Like seeking a particular type of ceviche served at a family-run restaurant in Peru, or a specific variety of honey in the backroads of Sicily. People are going back to the origins of ingredients and the recipes that reimagine them.

These modern-day pilgrimages include historic menus forged beneath the shadow of Mount Etna, or the discovery of ‘hidden’ wine regions in Pueblo Eden, the ‘Tuscany of Uruguay’. For those with a passion for mixology, others have taken an interest in our James Bond-inspired martini masterclass in 007’s London – all part of The Assignment: Europe.

Tom Marchant Profile Image
TOM MARCHANT Black Tomato co-founder

Tom Marchant is the co-founder of award-winning, tailormade luxury travel company Black Tomato. Recognised as an innovator and leading authority in the industry, Tom founded Black Tomato in 2005 with the aim of creating a business that reflected the needs and personalities of clients for whom the existing travel market offered nothing unique.

BLACK TOMATO

Since 2005, Black Tomato have created immersive, luxurious, and personalised trips across the world for their network of discerning and worldly travelers. Each Black Tomato itinerary is tailored expertly for the traveler at hand, placing an emphasis on the rare, the undiscovered, and the truly authentic.