7 top tourism trends for 2026

What’s in store for 2026? Top hotel groups, travel firms and trend forecasters have come up with their top suggestions for new trends in the next year. They suggest that we will see more quiet escapes, algorithm-shaped itineraries, ultra-personalised retreats and a return to slower, more intentional travel.

While VisitEngland have focused on visits to movie and television sets, otherwise know as “set-jetting” there has also been a trend towards “coolcations” – which was one of the Collins Dictionary words of the year – and “flashpacking”, a posher version of backpacking, these portmanteaus reflect the changing habits of visitors both within the UK and internationally.

So stay tuned for these top tips, sourced from the BBC, and given our own local twist.

Also called Hushpitality, this movement centres on comfort, silence and finding a way to escape the stresses of modern life. Sometimes it really is best to switch off, and we’ve already seen specific businesses who are embracing this concept.

Harborough’s Hidden Hideaway was set up 7 years ago with the intention of getting their guests back to nature and off their electrical devices. When guests arrive they are encouraged to pop their devices into a safe place in the cabins in order to encourage them to unplug. The site is all off-grid with power coming from solar. Each tent has a gas boiler for hot water and gas stove, plus a log burner and wood-fired hot tub. There is minimal lighting inside and out to avoid disturbing wildlife at night and areas around the tents are left wild for the insects and birds. 

Owner Ellie Jackson said: “Guests like to get back to nature and ask questions, it might scare them at first not having all the electronics but they soon adjust and love playing games, toasting marshmallow and interacting with each other. This is why we see a large volume of repeat guests!” 

Yes, AI is everywhere, and is driving everything from Facebook  advertising and Google searches right through to major tourism players like Expedia and Booking.com integrating tools such as ChatGPT. Adding real-time translation and mobile digital check-ins to the mix, we can see that technology is helping visitors to take the time and stress out of travelling.

But the rise of AI comes with complications. Sustainability experts warn that algorithmic recommendations can fuel overtourism, funnelling travellers to the same few destinations. It’s also behind a growing number of travel scams, so it pays to be use these tools thoughtfully.   

Visit Leicester has just launched a brand new AI-driven tool which will answer your questions and drive you to the right places on our website. What’s great about this new tool is that rather than searching the entire internet, which we know can lead to incorrect information, our new AI chatbot is only using content from the Visit Leicester website, so if anything’s wrong, then all we need to do is update our pages! The new tool is called FOXI (Find Out Extra Info) and is inspired by our county’s cute mascot. AND we have it on good authority that we are the very first tourism organisation in the UK to have our own Chatbot!

This leads perfectly into the next topic, which is all about putting your trip into the hands of people who know the area, know what’s great, and can help you plan out the perfect trip. These kind of travel experiences are the ideal way to explore a region, reflect rising ‘decision fatigue’ and hark back to the days of ‘mystery tours’ where you load onto a bus and end up in an unexpected location. There are no new ideas under the sun really, just repacked packages!

Leicestershire’s National Forest e-Bike Holidays has been taking this approach for some time now. Inspired by their experiences of holidays in Germany, Sue and Alan Jerham offer self-guided walking and biking experiences in and around North-West Leicestershire and into the surrounding counties.

These gentle walking and biking adventures blend sustainability with distinctive, local experiences and a commitment to supporting the local economy. Sue have built links with a wide range of local hotels, restaurants, attractions and food producers to put together bespoke packages that resonate with customers and have already earned national recognition with a Gold award for Green Tourism and Silver Winner for Ethical, Responsible, and Sustainable Tourism in the national Visit England Awards for Excellence 2023. 

According to Hilton’s 2026 Trends Report, the hashtag #RoadTrip has racked up more than 5.9 million tags globally as travellers rediscover the appeal of packing everything into the car and heading off on an adventure.

While there are luxury options here, many travellers (60% of Brits) are choosing a road-trip for the opposite reason, saving money! Leicestershire is perfectly placed to capitalise on this trend. For many years the city and county have been a ‘drive through’ on the way to other places, but the rising recognition of our offer gives us the perfect opportunity to capitalise on this. We’re an hour and a half from London, two hours from Leeds, an hour from Birmingham, and major roads converge on the city from all parts of the country. There’s a reason that some of the major Roman Roads ran straight through the city and county.

We also have some great car (or bike) friendly attractions, with the likes of the Triumph Factory Visitor Centre (the perfect spot for petrol-heads), Twycross Zoo, Belvoir Castle, the National Space Centre and many more, all car friendly and ready to welcome visitors from around the UK!

Gone are the days of the same old trips for everyone, people want unique experiences, something to take home and talk about, sharing something special. The travel industry is moving towards hyper individuality.

There are all kinds of specialist tours focused on special interests or specific life stages, from divorce and grief to menopause retreats, marriage retreats and even niche interest trips like racket sport holidays and insect enthusiasts tours.

Leicestershire is no different, playing on our distinctly unique offers, Visit Leicester has put together a number of unique itineraries based on our history, whether it’s the local links to King Richard III, or the transformation of the county from an industrial heartland to a green haven for nature.

There are also experiences available for those who want to experience the county’s unique food and drink. From being England’s Curry Capital to the protected foods like Melton Mowbray Pork Pies, Hidden Food Tours have capitalised on this to put together walking tours of the area allowing visitors to sample the fantastic food of Leicestershire and beyond.

More and more people are looking to get away from the crowded tourist hotspots and explore the quieter parts of our country. In the UK, this trend is steering people away from places like the Cotswolds and Cornwall towards lesser-visited areas.

Leicestershire has its fair share of places to rival any of these better known spots. The villages in Charnwood have been described as a mini-Cotswolds, and the country parks like Bradgate Park and Beacon Hill have the landscape and views to rival the Peak District (plus added history!)

Leicester and Leicestershire have so many opportunities in this space, with a festival calendar which rivals the likes of London and Brighton, food tourism that will give anyone a run for their money, and countryside that is quintessentially English. We are also one of the only places in the UK that people can visit the tomb of a monarch of the country, with Richard III laid to eternal rest in Leicester Cathedral.

Fuelled in part by “#BookTok”, literary travel is set to keep growing in 2026, alongside its sister trend: “set-jetting” (travel inspired by TV and film).

Leicestershire is perfectly placed for both We have already highlighted the key locations for film and TV, with Belvoir Castle being a double for Windsor Castle in Netflix’s The Crown (seen below), plus films including The Da Vinci Code and The Young Victoria, and the Great Central Railway in Loughborough was the location for an Oscar winning performance by Nicole Kidman in The Hours. There’s a full list of some of the great locations and films that have been produced in Leicestershire right here.

With the BBC announcing a new adaptation of local author Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and other local authors including Bali Rai and Joe Orton, plus Ashby de la Zouch’s links to Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, there is a fantastic opportunity to bring literary tourism into the region. Oh, and let’s not forget the Bard’s masterwork with King Richard III wishing away his kingdom for a horse on the Bosworth battlefield.