Buckle up because we’re already rocketing towards the new year. When looking at what’s trending for travelers in 2024, a few highlights come to mind: international trips still pull all the punches (just see our top trending list), the tide is turning against last-minute travel, and if you want to travel on a budget – you can’t go wrong with exploring your neighbors to the south.
Here are 2024’s trend highlights:
- Asia is still kind of a big deal. All that pent-up demand from pandemic-era travel restrictions hasn’t worn off some 2 years after most of these countries have reopened. Expect to see Hong Kong, Taipei, and Tokyo, the top 3 trending destinations of the year, all over your #fyp in 2024.
- Canadians want to get the heck out. Of North America, that is. In 2024, we’ll see a 45% increase in interest in international travel.
- Plan to book wayyyy in advance. If you’re planning to travel outside North America in 2024, and we know you are, our data suggests booking a minimum of 6 months in advance to save an average of between 7 and 35%. What does that mean? If you’re looking to travel next summer, now is the time to start booking that trip.
- The South Pacific is the anti-trend. Looking to avoid the trending and popular destinations that everyone else will be visiting in 2024? Several destinations including Sydney, Australia, Auckland, New Zealand and the Maldives are seeing a dip in searches when compared to 2023. They’re anti-trends, if you will.
- The best deals are in the States. Fort Myers, Florida, Tampa, Florida and Phoenix, Arizona headline as destinations that have seen the greatest drop in airfare compared to 2023.
Already have a trip in mind? Find out the best time to go on – and book – your vacation with our Best Time to Travel tool.
Methodology: KAYAK considered flight, hotel and rental car searches between 3/16/2023 and 9/15/2023 for travel between 1/1/2024 and 12/31/2024 to identify 2024 travel trends and insights. For instances where year over year comparisons were needed, searches between 3/16/2022 and 9/15/2022 for travel between 1/1/2023 and 12/31/2023 were considered. Trending destinations and regions were identified by looking at destinations or regions with the greatest year over year increase in searches. Deal destinations were identified by finding those with the greatest year over year decrease in airfare. Best time to book data was found by using historical data to identify the cheapest day or range of days to book in the year prior. Changes in flight class interest were identified by looking at year over year searches by flight class. And the most expensive month to travel was identified by looking at average airfare for each month within the travel dates specified. All airfares are in CAD, are on average and are subject to change. Flight searches considered were from a CA origin for round-trip, economy itineraries except in the case of flight class data.
