Skift Travel Megatrends 2021

By 2025, it turned out employees were happy to give up the office, but they wholeheartedly fought to keep some kind of physical interaction with coworkers.

There will be a stronger domestic and regional focus in the travel industry in 2025, and given that some of the world's biggest source markets will be in Asia (think China, India and Indonesia), Asia looks set to be the key beneficiary. But can the unbeatable beauty of Bryce Canyon in Utah, the pull of London's West End, or Parisian street life really keep Asians close to home for long?

Expect most travel sectors to shed their defined borders, with convergence running wild. But a handful of companies will choose to focus instead on their core services as an elixir for growth.

Domestic trips catapulted to a whole new level after Covid, a trend that remains solid as the world exits a four-year downturn in 2025. But international travel is like a stubborn flame because bucket lists are alive and well, albeit reimagined. Demand for long-term stays emerges from the rising crop of conscious travelers.

Some companies will add subscriptions to their mix of revenue streams, while others will go to market with subscriptions as the foundational offering in attempts at becoming a sort of Netflix of travel.

The global pandemic abruptly changed the world’s economy, and in a rush to revitalize their revenue streams, airlines are forgetting or neglecting people who run small businesses in the suburbs far away from any hubs. Is that wise or wishful thinking that it won’t matter?

The pace and extent of computerization varied in 2025. In countries that permitted it, some corporations automated their employees out of jobs without much hesitation. Workers needed to hone new skills as artificial intelligence threatened their livelihoods while others firms invested in retraining their staffs.

If airlines and hotels end up cutting back too much, they would risk providing plenty of opportunities for new companies to emerge, fill gaps, and gobble up market share. But a faster recovery in corporate travel would make this issue moot for a lot of companies.

Covid's multi-year blow has pushed the world's major cruise lines into efficiency overdrive – pruning ships, reducing ports of call, and expanding offshore islands to boost onboard revenue. But mounting global environmental pushback stifles the growth of mass cruise tourism.

The pandemic kickstarted a second payment revolution, and by 2025 travelers were in even more control of how they booked their trips and spent their money during their wanderings.