The Guidebook to Travel Trends: 2025
For travellers, following travel trends can make their journeys more fulfilling, personalised, and meaningful, catering to the evolving preferences of modern travellers.
Sustainable and Ethical Choices
With sustainable travel on the rise, travellers now have more options to align their journeys with their values. From staying at eco-friendly lodges to supporting community initiatives, travellers can enjoy experiences that not only respect the environment but also uplift local communities. Many lodges are embracing sustainable practices, including energy-saving measures, waste reduction, and the use of locally sourced materials and products.
Additionally, the use of electric safari vehicles and boats is growing, providing a cleaner, lower-emission alternative that allows travellers to experience nature with a lighter footprint. By choosing these options, our clients can contribute to the welfare of the places they visit while enjoying meaningful and responsible travel experiences.
Recommended lodges that offer electric transportation:
- Chobe Game Lodge, Botswana
- Ila Safari Lodge, Zambia
- Chisa Busanga Camp, Zambia
- Cheetah Plains, South Africa
- Ol Pejeta Bush Camp, Kenya
Travelling sustainably helps preserve destinations for future generations while enriching the travel experience.
Enhanced Convenience & Comfort
Technology trends such as mobile booking, digital check-ins, and virtual tour previews make travel planning easier and more convenient. These tools simplify each part of the journey, from booking to exploring a destination, ensuring our clients avoid common logistical issues and enjoy a smoother experience. Features like online check-in, contactless payments, and digital health records also add reassurance and ease, especially in today’s travel environment. These advancements allow our clients to spend less time managing details and more time enjoying their trip, making the experience both secure and comfortable. Features like online check-in, contactless payments, and digital health passports add a layer of security and convenience, especially in the post-COVID landscape.
Safety & Health Awareness
Trends often mirror current safety standards, which are especially valuable after recent pandemics. Our clients can keep up-to-date with our detailed first-hand information and can choose destinations and activities that offer health and safety measures for a greater sense of security. COVID heightened awareness around personal health and wellness, leading many travellers to prioritise safer options like private transport, open-air activities, and contactless services. These choices help protect well-being and make for a more comfortable travel experience.
Increased Value & Special Deals
We feel that our clients are looking for more great deals, innovative packages, and added benefits, like exclusive discounts. By staying current, our clients get more value for their investment with our value adds or special deals. We feature many special offers on our website and also provide annual exclusive Black Friday offers. We also have a loyalty program for loyal clients, that helps deepen the connection and provides even further benefits.
Unique, Off-the-Beaten-Path Experiences
Our team provides unique experiences, such as remote eco-lodges and cultural tours. Choosing these options helps our clients avoid busy tourist spots and enjoy more genuine, memorable adventures. We find many of our clients want to escape the typical tourist scenes and experience a destination’s true character. Discovering hidden gems or exploring lesser-known locations makes travellers feel special and that the trip is more tailored for them.
Recommended Properties:
- Sand River Selous, Tanzania
- Simbavati Cederberg Ridge, South Africa
- Wildtracks Eco Safari Lodge, Botswana
- Wolwedans Boulders Camp, Namibia
- Tembo Plains Camp, Zimbabwe
Cultural Immersions
This is a prominent travel trend for 2025. We see that our clients are increasingly seeking authentic experiences that allow them to deeply engage with local cultures, traditions, and communities. This shift reflects a desire for meaningful connections and a move away from traditional tourist activities. Destinations like East Africa are known not just for safaris but also for rich cultural interactions. This can also form part of ‘slow travel’ which was a trend in 2023 and into this year, which is a way to connect more deeply with local communities and traditions.
Recommended Lodges:
- Deception Valley Lodge, Botswana
- Delta Camp, Botswana
- Tawi Lodge, Kenya
- Vilanculos Beach Lodge, Mozambique
- Chuini Zanzibar Beach Lodge, Zanzibar
Workcation
A workcation blends work and vacation, allowing people to travel to new places while continuing to work remotely. As remote work becomes more common, more people have the freedom to work from various locations. This flexibility lets them enjoy new environments while managing work responsibilities, often boosting productivity and creativity. After years of working from home, many are ready for a change, and workcations offer an ideal way to explore different cultures and settings without needing long breaks from work. Workcations offer a refreshing alternative, letting people explore new cultures and settings without taking extended time off, meeting a desire for novelty and travel.
Many destinations now cater to remote workers by offering co-working spaces, reliable internet, and facilities that make it easy to work while travelling.
South Africa has recently introduced a Digital Nomad Visa.
Skillcation
A skillcation is a type of holiday, where our clients focus on learning or developing new skills while exploring a new destination. Unlike traditional holidays, which centre on relaxation and sightseeing, skillcations blend leisure travel with educational experiences, offering a meaningful, growth-oriented approach to travel. For example, visitors might take cooking classes to learn regional cuisine, participate in pottery workshops, or engage in language classes to improve local language skills. This travel trend appeals to clients looking to come back from their bush and beach holiday with more than just memories.
Phenomena Tourism
We see that our clients are planning trips around rare or natural events and phenomena, such as witnessing the Great Wildebeest Migration in East Africa or the Zebra Migration in Botswana. This trend is driven by a desire for awe-inspiring, once-in-a-lifetime experiences (bucket lists) that offer deep connections to the natural world. Social sharing has further encouraged our clients to pursue exciting, photogenic destinations and activities, adding destinations like African safaris.
Some other examples include:
- Dark Sky Reserve, Namibia for stargazing
- Bat migration, Zambia from October to December
- Flamingo Migration at Lake Nakuru in Kenya and Lake Natron in Tanzania
- Okavango Delta flooding, Botswana
- Turtle nesting, South Africa
- Victoria Falls’ lunar rainbow
Inspired by these travel trends? Start planning your trip today – contact us.
