Gen Z is stepping into 2026 with a radically personal, tech-driven approach to travel, turning trips into extensions of identity rather than just escapes from everyday life. New insights from Skyscanner’s 2026 Travel Trends report show that 52% of Gen Z are planning more trips abroad in 2026, with their choices shaped by beauty culture, AI tools, supermarket “safaris,” and a desire for deeper connections.
Travel as Self-Expression for Gen Z
For Gen Z, travel is less about ticking off classic bucket-list sights and more about curating experiences that align with passions like beauty, art, nature, food, and self-care. Instead of rigid, milestone-style itineraries, they are building trips around what feels “most them,” from mountain resets to bookstore crawls or skincare-led city breaks. Viral formats such as BookTok, GRWMs, and “girl dinner” are influencing where they go, what they do, and how they share it, turning TikTok and Instagram into real-time mood boards for destination inspiration.
Lourdes Losada, Director of Americas at Skyscanner, said that “Gen Z is rewriting the travel playbook,” describing their trips as expressive, intentional, and deeply shaped by the cultural trends they live every day. Whether chasing global beauty rituals or spontaneous meet‑ups abroad, this cohort is setting the tone for how travel will look in 2026 and beyond.
Glowmads, BeautyTok, and “Shelf Discovery”
Beauty is becoming a major travel driver under Skyscanner’s “Glowmads” trend. 40% Gen Z plan to seek out beauty treatments or skincare stores while traveling next year, and they are far more likely than Baby Boomers (6%) to prioritise beauty-focused activities abroad. TikTok’s BeautyTok community acts as both a catalogue and recommendation engine, nudging travellers toward destinations known for facials, clinics, K‑beauty stores, or cult product hotspots.
Food habits are shifting too, with Skyscanner dubbing the rise of “Shelf Discovery” as supermarket tourism goes mainstream. Nearly 33% of Gen Z plan to visit supermarkets abroad on their next trip, hunting for snacks, staples, and cult products they cannot find at home. Viral clips of 7‑Eleven stops in Japan to try egg salad sandwiches or hyper-local snacks capture a new kind of culinary tourism that favours everyday authenticity over white-tablecloth fine dining.
Catch Flights and Feelings, Not Just Deals
Dating and social habits are also being rewritten through travel. Under the “Catch Flights and Feelings” trend, 74% of Gen Z say they are turning to new cities and destinations to meet people beyond their local dating pools, using trips as chances to connect more freely. Around a third of Gen Z report feeling more open to meeting others while traveling and say they feel freer to be themselves in new environments.
At the same time, multigenerational travel is on the rise through the “Family Miles” trend. Many Gen Z travellers are planning trips with parents (52%), grandparents (28%), or across multiple generations (37%), blending affordability with a focus on memory-making and deeper family bonds. Mountains are seeing a similar emotional pull: more than 58% of Gen Z say they are turning to mountain destinations like the Dolomites, Annapurna, and the Canadian Rockies for peace, quiet, and restorative time in nature, beyond the traditional ski season.
Beach 2.0 and Tech-Forward Planning
Beach escapes are still firmly in the mix, but “Beach 2.0” looks different. Destinations such as Madeira, Zadar, Olbia, and Mykonos are resonating thanks to a blend of natural beauty and adventure, with more than 51% of travellers interested in beach vacations and over a third planning water activities like wild swimming, snorkelling, paddleboarding, or surfing. For Gen Z, the best beach trips now combine aesthetics, action, and content-friendly backdrops.
Crucially, Gen Z is the most tech-forward travel generation. Seventy-two percent of Gen Z feel confident using AI to plan and book their 2026 trips, turning to smart tools for destination inspiration, itinerary building, and price comparison. and hyper‑personalised planning. They combine AI-powered features with social media and traditional search to find deals, uncover emerging destinations, and stitch together trips that feel tailored to their interests and budgets.
Skyscanner’s Role in the New Travel Era
Skyscanner’s 2026 Travel Trends report blends proprietary data from millions of searches with insights from a global survey of 22,000 travellers conducted in June–July 2025, plus behavioural data like hotel redirects using filters such as “room with a mountain view,” “library,” and “solo.”
Founded in 2003, Skyscanner now connects millions of travellers every month across 52 countries and 37 languages to more than 1,200 trusted travel partners, searching around 100 billion prices every day so users can compare flights, hotels, and car rentals in one place. With offices across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America, the company continues to lean on data, AI, and user insights to simplify planning—and, as this report shows, to track how generations like Gen Z are reshaping where, why, and how the world travels next.
