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The Ins & Outs of Travel Trends in 2026 · GowayPro Travel Tales

• 0:00
  Hey there everyone, I'm Don, Professor Goethe and welcome to the GoethePro Travel Tale Podcast.
• 0:06
  you
• 0:13
  Travel far and gravel often.
• 0:15
  you
• 0:18
  Hello everyone.
• 0:19
  Welcome to the go a pro travel tales podcast.
• 0:22
  This is number four or five in the year.
• 0:26
  Um, we are recording this in February.
• 0:29
  I'm in our Toronto studio and our guest today is a director of sales, Renee, Renee Stanton, and she's coming to us from, I'm going to hazard a guest, sunny Colonna Renee,
• 0:39
  cause we were discussing last year.
• 0:43
  That's not so much here.
• 0:45
  Toronto, for those who don't know, have been going through, I think it's up until yesterday.
• 0:49
  It was three and a half weeks of below zero temperatures.
• 0:53
  um So it's starting to get warmer and Renee out in Kelowna was saying, it was up in the seven, eight degrees and sunshine and all this beautiful stuff.
• 1:02
  Now, having said that, also Renee would post on the weekends of her and her family going skiing at where Big White is your area of go to?
• 1:10
  which one?
• 1:11
  Which one?
• 1:13
  Be quiet, yes.
• 1:14
  So where is big white compared to
• 1:18
  an hour from Kelowna.
• 1:19
  It's considered to be in Kelowna.
• 1:22
  right.
• 1:23
  Oh, right.
• 1:24
  So it's like the GTA or the GT GTQ the greater.
• 1:28
  No,
• 1:30
  area from where I live one hour 30 minutes if you're downtown so not too far at all
• 1:36
  Right.
• 1:37
  How does Big White compare to Whistler from both crowds and or skiing?
• 1:41
  Is it as good, better?
• 1:45
  someone who's lived in Whistler, can tell you that it's not as big as Terrain, but I prefer the snow and there's no crowds.
• 1:53
  Perfect.
• 1:55
  Yeah, because most of your posts from someone, I'm not a crazy skier, but we, you we went skiing as a kids grew up.
• 2:01
  We would, we did not Trump Blonde and that was always busy.
• 2:05
  Um, yeah.
• 2:06
  Big white seems to be somewhat sparse of crowds, which seems to be a big positive.
• 2:11
  bit more locals, is always nice.
• 2:13
  Whenever the skiers or snowboarders out there, I'm sure they can appreciate that.
• 2:17
  A wait of only five to 10 minutes on a powder day is pretty unusual in North America.
• 2:22
  Yeah, very much so.
• 2:23
  Okay.
• 2:23
  Well, we're not here to promote skiing though, Gowee can help you with that.
• 2:26
  ah Nor Kelowna in particular, that we can help you with that as well.
• 2:30
  uh It's more, I'll just bring it up one just as an introduction, but to the point of crowds.
• 2:35
  And that is something we're going to touch on today.
• 2:38
  ah When Renee and I look at the ins and outs, ah the trends, the popular destinations for 2026.
• 2:46
  And one of the key aspects of that, which we will get to in bit more detail as we get into it.
• 2:52
  is travelers, globe travelers looking to get away from the crowds and the usual big sites which are becoming more and more popular uh throughout the world.
• 3:01
  um So again, what we're look at is trends and things that you, travel partners, should be aware of if you're not already ah of what to look at for 2026.
• 3:16
  So what I wouldn't mind doing first of all is we're gonna get into different types of travel.
• 3:21
  which are proving popular and maybe not so popular anymore.
• 3:24
  But before we get into that, I'd like to maybe touch on some of the top destinations for 2026.
• 3:29
  And we're gonna bounce back and forth between Renee and myself on highlighting some of these destinations.
• 3:37
  um Before we get into that, into the list that we have here, which we're presenting through research and what we are seeing through booking trends.
• 3:46
  Renee, is there anything you'd like to introduce to our listening public out there before we get into the details of the destinations?
• 3:54
  No, just to let you all know, this is probably one of my favorite podcasts we do.
• 3:57
  We did this last year.
• 3:59
  So as Don was alluding to, it's really about what we see trending in the market.
• 4:03
  So you're going to see here some more lesser known destinations that we're going to talk about today.
• 4:09
  Our top destinations still are the very popular ones, countries, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, South Africa.
• 4:18
  However, today we want to go a little bit more into those more hidden gems that we're starting to see people have traveled to.
• 4:25
  Yeah.
• 4:25
  And it's just not just our opinion being our, being myself and Renee.
• 4:30
  It's also we've asked and had input from our VP of our respective departments, which in Goa does all seven continents.
• 4:39
  So we're coming to you or this information is coming to you from all the entire globe.
• 4:43
  But more importantly, not to lessen our VPs of course, but more importantly, input from our destination specialists who are seeing and dealing with our travel partners and
• 4:52
  intern.
• 4:53
  the travel public on an everyday basis of what they're seeing has been trending as we left 2025 moving into 2026.
• 5:02
  And something that's worth, think, pointing out as we're North American based company, 99 % probably of our business is US and Canada, that with all the political uncertainty for
• 5:15
  one of the better turn that we've all experienced over the last sort of year and a bit two years, the travel is still
• 5:21
  maintaining itself in that people are not being put off traveling to anywhere in the world.
• 5:26
  Would you support that statement, Renee?
• 5:29
  Absolutely, Dawn.
• 5:30
  In fact, we had a record breaking year in 2025 and January was a record breaking month for us as well.
• 5:37
  I think we you'll hear that throughout our podcast, just some of the ways that people are traveling now that might differ a little bit to maybe how they were five years ago.
• 5:45
  But it's definitely not turning anyone off travel.
• 5:48
  think COVID taught us all that we just have to get out there and uh do everything while we can.
• 5:54
  Yeah.
• 5:55
  And again, we are still seeing while there are downward trends in travel into the United States from around the world, we're seeing a go away that people are still people are
• 6:06
  still looking to travel into the US itself as well, which is a positive thing because geopolitics aside, travels what it's all about getting out there and experience the world
• 6:15
  no matter where that may be is important to us here at Go Aiden actually important to our
• 6:20
  travel clients out there.
• 6:21
  So let's get into some of the meat and potatoes as we'd say in Australia, the nitty gritty in respect to the destinations in question.
• 6:29
  So I'll start.
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  One thing we're seeing and has remained popular coming out of COVID and over the last couple of years has been Japan, but in particular Kyushu, ah which is southern part of
• 6:42
  Japan, because what you'll also, I think you'll hear in our conversation with between us today, Renee and myself is that
• 6:49
  A lot of people are looking for new destinations within the expected destination.
• 6:54
  So Japan, the Golden Triangle, Kyoto, Tokyo, etc.
• 6:59
  or Osaka are the most popular sort of first time adventures into Japan.
• 7:05
  But Kyushu in the South uh is proving very, very popular because again, it's less touristy.
• 7:11
  It's something new, but it still offers all the highlights of what someone would expect from
• 7:17
  Japan and we have a very good, I think it's a webinar on that on our uh YouTube channel for the details.
• 7:24
  We're not gonna dump into all the details today due to time, but that's our first one, Kyushu Japan.
• 7:30
  The other one we're seeing again is France, which is a no-brainer, but it's not the big city of Paris necessarily, or Normandy, it's Lyon, uh another province of France, lots of
• 7:42
  wine options down this way.
• 7:43
  uh
• 7:45
  So that's proving to be popular again for people looking to get away from the hustle and bustle and the big crowds.
• 7:52
  Now in Europe in particular, uh many things because of their popularity can now not be booked a long time in advance.
• 8:00
  So tickets to the Eiffel Tower, uh entrances to the Louvre Museum, et cetera.
• 8:05
  They all need to be booked or confirmed.
• 8:08
  I should say you can book it as far ahead as you want, but to get the tickets, they're only confirmed sometimes, Renee, I believe.
• 8:13
  a week out, two weeks out, maybe a month out if you're lucky.
• 8:16
  Is that right for a lot of the sites in Europe now?
• 8:19
  I so.
• 8:19
  mean, I'm not the expert on that, but I do believe that it's a little bit more challenging compared to what it used to be.
• 8:27
  Yeah, so we're not saying don't go to those sites, of course, a lot of your clients will probably want to see that but looking outside of the hassle and the crowds etc.
• 8:37
  Lyon in France is another one.
• 8:39
  uh A beautiful spot, well trodden path um on the African continent.
• 8:45
  One that I've done and I'm going to pass this over to Renee because she's also done it is the Garden Route in South Africa.
• 8:51
  Yes, absolutely stunning drive.
• 8:52
  In fact, it reminded me a lot of Australia.
• 8:55
  Both Don and I were born in the same area of Sydney in Australia, and it really did bring me back there.
• 9:01
  I was a little bit concerned when I first booked the trip because do I self drive in South Africa?
• 9:07
  That's always a question.
• 9:08
  Is it going to be safe?
• 9:09
  And my husband and I did, and we're so happy that we did decide to do that part as self drive because it's absolutely stunning.
• 9:16
  Think 370 kilometers of stretch along beautiful
• 9:20
  beaches, really gorgeous little coastal towns that you get to visit along the way.
• 9:25
  ah It honestly was one of our highlights of South Africa and I think that's why I love South Africa so much because it's not just about the game.
• 9:32
  You've got the garden route, you've got the wine region, it's just such a diverse country.
• 9:38
  Yeah.
• 9:38
  And it's worth pointing out too, that when people throughout the garden route, a lot of people will, when they look at a trip or other companies will say, yes, you've done the
• 9:46
  garden route, but they only do like a very small section uh of the garden route.
• 9:50
  And that's what Renee's talking about by driving it from one end to the other is what we recommend because again, it gets you away from the very big and popular Cape Town, et
• 9:59
  cetera, up to Durban.
• 10:01
  uh But a lot of people will just do maybe half a day trip or a day trip out of each of those cities, but not connected to cities via the garden route.
• 10:08
  which as you mentioned is very similar to coastal drives in Australia.
• 10:13
  Staying on the African continent, and again I'll let Renee wax lyrically about these two particular options, not surprising in these destinations or areas of a country have
• 10:23
  remained popular probably since before Christ.
• 10:27
  And that would be Alexandria and Giza with the pyramids in Egypt, Cairo.
• 10:33
  was fortunate enough last year to go to Egypt and we went there in January or February perhaps of last year and one museum that had only half opened was the Grand Egyptian
• 10:44
  Museum.
• 10:45
  I'm sure a lot of our listeners today have heard about this and it is finally open.
• 10:49
  It's taken them quite some years to finally open.
• 10:52
  It is a 500,000 square meter museum.
• 10:57
  It's absolutely incredible and it's the footsteps of the Giza Pyramid.
• 11:02
  can you imagine walking into this very opulent grand museum, which is, don't know how many football fields, but let's just say it's massive.
• 11:09
  And then the first view you get is of these incredible pyramids.
• 11:12
  So I was fortunate to go to one of the soft openings, which, like I said, it was very small, the percentage of what we could actually see there, but now it is officially open.
• 11:22
  So that's going to be a big calling card for getting people over to Egypt.
• 11:26
  Another thing that we did in Egypt in Alexandria was go to the Greco-Roman Museum.
• 11:31
  ah That itself reopened after 18 years of renovations and that displays lots of treasures from Egypt's Greek and Roman periods.
• 11:40
  So naturally Egypt is a calling card for everyone but now with those two museums opening and reopening I think it'll be another popular one for us to see this year.
• 11:50
  Yeah, there's a lot of, again, people who log into our travel academy know my love for history and they've heard that through the webinars and podcasts.
• 11:59
  Egypt itself and around Cairo and further south down to the Valley of the Kings, famous for its Egyptian history.
• 12:06
  But also, as you mentioned, the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria and the name itself, Alexandria is named after the Macedonian king.
• 12:17
  The whole area of Egypt is a crossroads of history, Greek,
• 12:20
  and Egyptian of course and then some modern day history is something I did many years ago as I drove up the coastal run another coastal drive up to El Alamein a lot of battles were
• 12:29
  fought just outside of Cairo in the Second World War so if you're into the into battlefield history as well that's another good option in and around Alexandria in
• 12:39
  particular and Egypt in general.
• 12:41
  Now this is
• 12:42
  an area that I've not been to, so I'm not going to speak about it as firsthand information.
• 12:46
  I don't believe, Renee, you've been to China at this stage?
• 12:51
  Yeah, this is one that quite a lot of Australians, as we both are, as Renee mentioned before, they hit Asia and China is often a very popular first stop on their Asian run, but
• 13:02
  both Renee have not done China.
• 13:05
  But the area we're talking about is uh Guilin in China.
• 13:08
  um And if you look at, if you Google it,
• 13:13
  G-U-I-L-I-N, for those who don't know how to spell it, and I didn't prior to this little presentation, Guilin.
• 13:18
  But you will know the sites that you see when you Google the images of it.
• 13:22
  Beautiful, tall limestone topography geology out there.
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  Lots of caving can be happened in the area.
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  It sits on the Lee River, L.A.
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  River.
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  You got boat cruises, bamboo rafting, et cetera, and a lot of cultural interaction in and around Guilin.
• 13:40
  And again, this is sort of off the beaten track, relatively speaking to the average person's trip into China, which is obviously things like the Great Wall, the terracotta
• 13:49
  warriors, Beijing, um and all the sort of the bigness of China.
• 13:55
  So Guilin is another option.
• 13:58
  Again, as you're probably hearing the trend now to get away from the usual, the world trodden into some sort of regional areas of some of the countries.
• 14:06
  um
• 14:07
  The next one we have on our list and this one is very close to my heart and I can, I don't know for sure Renee, but I'm pretty sure it would be for you is the Whitsundays in
• 14:16
  Australia.
• 14:17
  Do you want to expand on that one?
• 14:20
  Absolutely done.
• 14:24
  Look, Australia being one of GoAway's number one destinations for goodness sake, for a very long time now, we would be remiss if we didn't mention Australia and in particular
• 14:33
  the Whitsundays.
• 14:34
  So what I love about the Whitsundays is you have all of these, obviously it's the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.
• 14:41
  Everyone wants to go to the Great Barrier Reef.
• 14:43
  But you also have some of these beautiful undeveloped beaches like Whitehaven Beach, which has been ranked time and time again as one of the number one beaches in the world.
• 14:52
  So you can not only dive in the
• 14:54
  barrier reef, sail between the islands, but Whitehaven in itself is something that's really special and still the Australian dollar isn't that strong against the Canadian and
• 15:04
  US dollar.
• 15:05
  So I do always tell our North American clients to to get over there whilst your dollar is strong.
• 15:12
  Yeah, and there's some good airfares popping up just as we're recording this from the west coast of North America down to Australia.
• 15:18
  It's worth pointing out too that the Whitsundays, you can access some of the Whitsunday Islands, which is like a very short distance Caribbean for an Australian, like stunningly
• 15:28
  beautiful white sandy beaches and islands just at our doorstep.
• 15:32
  But they run from sort of just north of Brisbane uh and the barrier reef itself runs all the way up as most people would know into Cairns.
• 15:39
  in northern Queensland.
• 15:41
  remember that Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world.
• 15:44
  It's the largest living organism in the world.
• 15:47
  So you don't necessarily have to go all the way to Cairns to experience the Barrier Reef.
• 15:51
  can access it from Brisbane and north of Brisbane as well, and particularly in the Whitsundays.
• 15:57
  um Lord Howe Island, Haven Island, um Hamilton Island.
• 16:01
  I'm just trying remember some of the many islands out there and the big, big popular
• 16:05
  Vidara, there's so many beautiful islands.
• 16:09
  There's I'm not sure if it was Fraser Island, I can't remember what it's called now, it's an indigenous name.
• 16:14
  Made the news recently with the young woman who passed away on the beach.
• 16:19
  It's a larger sand island in the world, but I'm not sure if that's technically the barrier reef.
• 16:24
  Do you know, Renee, is that on the barrier reef technically or is it?
• 16:27
  don't think it is, but don't quote me on that.
• 16:30
  Yeah, yeah.
• 16:30
  But anyway, it's another option as well.
• 16:32
  Not with Sundays particularly.
• 16:34
  Back to Europe, uh we have Valencia, Spain.
• 16:37
  We've just done a podcast and a webinar on this destination.
• 16:41
  I highly recommend you go in and dig those up and have a listen to it.
• 16:44
  We spoke to the head of tourism of Valencia.
• 16:46
  I've not been uh and it was an unknown to me.
• 16:49
  And as I did some research for the podcast and webinar, I found out that um two friends of ours, uh they used to have a
• 16:59
  exchange student living with them here in Toronto, Canada, and she was from Valencia, Spain.
• 17:04
  They went back and visited her just recently.
• 17:06
  And another good friend of mine, uh she goes uh every summer for an extended Airbnb.
• 17:12
  I've tried to convince her to book with Guy, but she likes her Airbnb.
• 17:15
  But she goes off to Valencia every year for her sort Spanish immersion.
• 17:19
  So Valencia, Spain is also a trending destination.
• 17:24
  And again, it's for the same reasons we brought up a few times already.
• 17:27
  ah It's not as
• 17:28
  big or busy as somewhere like maybe Barcelona or Madrid.
• 17:33
  it offers, speaking to the lady um from the tourism board there, basically she said you're in a big Spanish city, but you feel the space around you um in respect to other travelers,
• 17:48
  as well as locals.
• 17:49
  So again, it's that concept of people looking for the Spanish experience, but trying to get away from the hustle and bustle.
• 17:56
  And from my understanding as well, don't quote me on this, the recent publicity about a year ago where the Spanish were sort of getting upset with all the tourists in town, that
• 18:05
  was more in Madrid and in Barcelona, but in Valencia, very, very welcoming.
• 18:09
  And that was not and is not, as we recall, an issue.
• 18:12
  So again, Valencia, Spain is a popular one.
• 18:16
  We mentioned, or I mentioned in the introduction that we have not seen a turn down.
• 18:20
  In fact, we've seen an increase in travelers traveling.
• 18:23
  either within the US as in US clients traveling in the US or Canadians coming into the US and not surprisingly I think one of the most popular destinations.
• 18:33
  think it's we have a module in the academy on this I think it's the big eight or the big seven national parks in and around Colorado and Utah and Renee I believe you were down
• 18:43
  there recently as well on visiting one of these
• 18:47
  I was just down there in November.
• 18:48
  I uh flew into Las Vegas and went into Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, both of which were stunning.
• 18:56
  Our sales, as Don alludes to, they've almost doubled year on year to your own backyard.
• 19:02
  So I highly encourage those people to go out, see your national parks.
• 19:06
  And there's actually a new um train that's been launched, the Canyon Spirit Train.
• 19:11
  which connects travelers from Denver to Salt Lake City.
• 19:14
  It's in a domed coaches.
• 19:17
  So very similar.
• 19:18
  It's actually the sister company to Rocky Mountaineer.
• 19:21
  So I do think that that way of travel is also, we're going to see it trending more to the national parks and maybe not necessarily self drive, but also looking at alternative
• 19:29
  travel methods throughout the national park.
• 19:31
  But look, I don't think I need to sell Colorado and Utah because our listeners will know how beautiful it is.
• 19:38
  And also diverse.
• 19:39
  You really do see.
• 19:41
  Like even just between Zion and Bryce Canyon, they were so incredibly different.
• 19:45
  So if you haven't already, definitely make sure you're looking into those national parks for your clients because you want them to book it with you.
• 19:52
  You don't want them to book it themselves.
• 19:53
  And we have some incredible packages on goaway.com that could inspire them.
• 19:59
  Yeah, I must admit when I was a tour guide coming through North America, I wasn't at that time very well versed on what both Canada and the US had to offer with respect to national
• 20:09
  parks.
• 20:10
  Like, we knew the big ones, Denali, Grand Canyon, of course.
• 20:13
  But it was to me at the time, was all these other ones that I hadn't heard of, the Bryce, the Zion, Arches, etc.
• 20:20
  which I know are very, very famous within North America.
• 20:23
  But I was absolutely blown away by
• 20:25
  the diversity, as you mentioned, Renee, of the different parks, not that far apart from each other many of the time as well, but they were so different, offered so many different
• 20:34
  experiences within there.
• 20:36
  So most Australians don't visit their backyard or they don't do it when they're younger.
• 20:40
  We being Renee and I, look at us both, we're both in Canada at the moment, married to Canadians.
• 20:48
  So.
• 20:49
  Aussies tend to go to the world before they look at their backyard.
• 20:53
  More and more Americans and Canadians will explore their backyard.
• 20:56
  But still, I know there a lot of people out there ah who haven't done that and they should, definitely Colorado, Utah, but also look at East Coast Canada, West Coast Canada
• 21:05
  and probably one of my favorite spots in the world, which I'm seeing more and more as I sit near a lot of our destination specialists.
• 21:11
  Alaska is another one which is starting to really ramp up for go away as well.
• 21:15
  And not just the cruises actually getting in there and exploring the
• 21:19
  the outback, as we would say, of Alaska.
• 21:22
  A couple more.
• 21:24
  These ones are very personal to me or one more so than the other, but we have Tromsø in Norway.
• 21:31
  I'd always wanted to go to the Scandinavian countries and I was lucky enough to do that with Gawaii when we opened up this part of Europe many years ago.
• 21:40
  And Norway was everything I thought it would be.
• 21:42
  It is, if you like the outdoors.
• 21:44
  So we're just talking about the, you know, the big national parks in the US.
• 21:47
  So just think of it.
• 21:49
  uh an extension of that in Norway, bit colder at times.
• 21:52
  But the scenery around Tromsø and in Norway in general is amazing.
• 21:58
  ah that's again, a lot of people hit Bergen, they'll hit Oslo, they'll all the big sites.
• 22:03
  But Tromsø further north is a little away from where most other people will travel and it offers all those big sites and experiences you can expect on a Norway visit.
• 22:15
  And the other one, which I have been on my soapbox for years promoting,
• 22:19
  which I don't know why more people don't go there, particularly the more adventurous is the Pantanal in Brazil.
• 22:25
  It's a big wetlands area right in the heart of the South American continent.
• 22:30
  have just, we're just about to release a podcast on Northern Pantanal with two of our staff who went down there last year and we are about to put together a webinar on the area
• 22:44
  with the tourism board of the area of the Pantanal.
• 22:47
  Now,
• 22:48
  It's the wetland area.
• 22:49
  if anyone's been to or sold a Botswana and the Okavanga Delta, think of that with a Latin spiel.
• 22:54
  The big attraction is uh its remoteness for one.
• 22:58
  um A lot of the Amazon rivers feed the Pantanal.
• 23:02
  But the biggest highlight, I think, for lot of people is jaguars.
• 23:05
  You're almost guaranteed against Mother Nature.
• 23:09
  I think it's 100 % for sure.
• 23:11
  But you can see jaguar um almost on any trip if you go in the right seasons, of course.
• 23:16
  And when you listen to our podcast with Brian and Susanna who went down there last year, they saw the Jaguar in abundance and Brian's photography, which we added to some of the
• 23:27
  podcasts, the recorded version of it, sorry, the video version of it is amazing.
• 23:31
  And he just had his iPhone, no big cameras down there.
• 23:34
  So the Pantanal is a great addition to any trip into Brazil.
• 23:38
  And again, it's something new and different from the usual Brazilian trip.
• 23:43
  So they're our top, I didn't count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, oh look at that, 10, right on.
• 23:50
  Top 10 trending destinations that we have seen coming and we perceive going into 26 and beyond.
• 23:56
  anything else you'd like to add to that before we may get into some of the travel styles that people are looking for now?
• 24:02
  No, I think we covered them off well.
• 24:04
  I mean, you and I could talk about destinations forever.
• 24:08
  Yeah.
• 24:08
  Yeah.
• 24:08
  And we are trying to not do that talk forever about it all.
• 24:13
  If you have any more particular questions, I did mention a lot of these spots we've already have, or we'll have podcasts and webinars coming up for details.
• 24:21
  But of course you can call your go away destination specialist should you get an inquiry from one of your clients for more details on any of these destinations.
• 24:28
  And as I said, we do all seven continents.
• 24:30
  So anywhere else in the world that you may be asked for.
• 24:34
  they're the destinations, but I think Renee, what
• 24:37
  you and I would concede is destinations aside, a lot of people are looking at ways in which to go to a certain country.
• 24:45
  It's not what it used to be.
• 24:47
  And as the title of our podcast is the ins and outs, let's talk about some of the ins and outs of uh type of travel.
• 24:56
  So we've got in is stress free travel, which I think has been historically what people want.
• 25:01
  You don't go on holiday to be stressed out.
• 25:04
  And out is
• 25:05
  being overly concerned about safety.
• 25:07
  And I say overly concerned is that you should always be concerned when you travel anywhere of your personal safety and don't walk into situations.
• 25:15
  But you just don't want to have to be worrying about petty stuff all the time as the inn suggests.
• 25:21
  You want stress-free travel.
• 25:23
  Rena, you want to expand on that in any form?
• 25:26
  Yeah, it was actually interesting.
• 25:27
  A study was done recently and they found that the number one concern for travelers in 2025 actually was safety because there is being a lot that has happened around the world in the
• 25:36
  last couple of years.
• 25:38
  And so they're now seeking out more and more so travel advisors so they can get the advice on where is safe.
• 25:44
  How do I travel there?
• 25:45
  What methods shall I use when I'm in destination?
• 25:48
  So I think it's great because this whole stress free mentality is
• 25:53
  we're taking the stress off you, because we're going to help you navigate the world.
• 25:56
  We're going to help you get there.
• 25:57
  When you're actually in destination, we'll tell you the best ways to travel around as well.
• 26:02
  So I think that also just extends to having a partner for the travel advisor and making sure they have a trusted partner that knows the destination inside and out.
• 26:11
  And people do come to us a lot when there's certain things happening around the world.
• 26:16
  we'll be able to give that local advice as to yes, is it safe or not or maybe go here instead.
• 26:21
  So I think that's a lot about the stress fee as well, just knowing who to partner with.
• 26:26
  sure.
• 26:26
  you know, I think it's an obvious statement, but I'll make it anyway.
• 26:29
  Go away would not recommend or does not sell any destination, which we know is unsafe.
• 26:35
  But so I guess what Renee's more pointing out is again, those little things or client you might might have out there that who are nervous about a destination, because they heard a
• 26:45
  story on the news that might have shaded their opinion on the destination, our destination specialist, and our team of experts and logistical operations team behind us.
• 26:54
  We monitor every destination pretty much every single day.
• 26:57
  you feel safe.
• 26:58
  You feel safe booking with us and your clients should feel safe as well, which segues nicely into the in is naturally, and we're all of the same family here and we're all
• 27:09
  travel professionals, clients are looking for trustworthy and efficient travel advisors and the out, which is very interesting because I Rene is a fan of this, is the
• 27:20
  over-reliance on AI.
• 27:24
  So Renee, again, I'm gonna do the in and out.
• 27:25
  You can then expand on these points, but everywhere else, like GoAway is utilizing AI and we do know that it is down the track, in my opinion, a potential competitor to the travel
• 27:38
  industry.
• 27:39
  I think right now, and I think for a long, time, um the human aspect, the trustworthy and efficient travel advisor will always overrule AI, Renee.
• 27:50
  Without a doubt, Don, and look, just getting some numbers to back this up as well.
• 27:53
  There was a research done last year from Talker Research.
• 27:57
  And they found that, look, it's depending what segment you're also talking to.
• 28:01
  If we're talking about the baby boomers, roughly 70 % of them have never even used AI.
• 28:07
  So if you have clients that are baby boomers, chances are they haven't even used AI before.
• 28:12
  However, when you're talking about the younger generations, then there's a 75 % chance that they're doing their destination research with AI.
• 28:21
  71 % of them do restaurant recommendations.
• 28:24
  37 translation and 25 % about lodging.
• 28:27
  However, they still don't trust AI completely.
• 28:32
  And that's where we step in and obviously the travel advisor as well.
• 28:35
  So they like to go there to get, do their research.
• 28:38
  However, then they want to come to someone that's trusted because only 7 % of people say they actually trust what AI is giving them.
• 28:47
  So even though those numbers are really high, when I said 75 % of them will go to AI, only 7 %
• 28:53
  of people actually trust what AI is telling them.
• 28:56
  even though as a company, we too are looking at AI and I love AI because it does help me be more productive.
• 29:02
  We all know it needs that human touch at the end of the day.
• 29:05
  It needs someone to look at it, to make sure it's correct because it's only spitting out what we're the whole world is putting in.
• 29:13
  So it's not necessarily going to be giving that really in detail destination advice that we're all looking for.
• 29:19
  So I don't see it as a threat.
• 29:20
  I see it as a compliment.
• 29:22
  help us to make us more productive.
• 29:24
  ah But if only 7 % of people are trusting it, that's a pretty powerful number that 93 % of people still want that human connection.
• 29:34
  And that's the strength of travel is that at the end of the day, it's an emotional connection to the country you're going to, the people you're meeting.
• 29:45
  And that starts with the emotional connection in the planning stages.
• 29:48
  So the client speaking to you, our travel partners, and you in turn speaking to us because as Renee says, AI is just pulling in all the stuff that's out there um in the world on the
• 30:00
  web.
• 30:01
  But people, when it comes to travel, they want to hear from
• 30:04
  someone who's had experience and I don't mean, you know, putting the numbers together, but I've been to this country.
• 30:09
  I know this little pub around the corner.
• 30:11
  The inside scoop is there.
• 30:13
  So I grew up in this country as the case may be.
• 30:15
  So that's where I think travel in respect to AI will always be ahead because it's a very personal emotional connection product.
• 30:23
  It's a horrible way to put emotions in a box, but uh when you travel, it's not about the numbers per se.
• 30:30
  It's about those personal interactions.
• 30:32
  amongst the travel group or the travel person to the local community and the environment and experiences they're having down there.
• 30:39
  So yeah, I don't think AI is, I think you put it beautifully, Renee, it's not a threat.
• 30:44
  It will be a compliment to the human out there selling travel for many years to come.
• 30:49
  Another one, which is, I think, pretty obvious for most people.
• 30:53
  Well, now I say that within our building and within the travel community, uh ethical tourism is in.
• 31:00
  and over tourism is out and you've probably heard that trend when we were discussing the destinations that most of our destinations were not the norm.
• 31:10
  They were different ones within very popular um countries.
• 31:14
  Renee, you wanna add to that?
• 31:17
  Look, Dun, I think we've spoken about this a lot about the over tourism side.
• 31:21
  another thing that we did find interesting that there was another study, because naturally we like to back everything up with figures, that the CAGR rate, which is basically
• 31:30
  travelers looking at prioritizing ethnical trips over the next and also trips that have um don't have a negative impact on local communities and how we can benefit a local
• 31:42
  community.
• 31:43
  So when we travel into destination, are we going
• 31:46
  and assisting companies that are actually bringing that money back to North America or is that money actually staying locally?
• 31:53
  And that's something that Go Away really prioritizes when we're putting together itineraries.
• 31:57
  Are we making a positive impact to the communities that we're traveling to?
• 32:03
  And so 6%, I know that doesn't sound like much, but 6 % of travelers, that's going to continue upwards.
• 32:10
  But it represents over $136 billion in extra travel volume.
• 32:16
  based on this whole ethnical travel.
• 32:18
  So I think we're to see more and more of this, Dawn, over the coming years, especially with the younger demographic, because though the demographic coming through, the
• 32:26
  millennials, the Gen Zs and so forth, uh they really do care about the impact they're making on the world.
• 32:32
  for sure.
• 32:33
  GoAE has always been very conscious of its footprint in the countries of visits for many, many years.
• 32:40
  We just haven't shouted about it from the rooftops.
• 32:43
  But on the flip side, we have over, I think, the last eight months introduced internally a new sustainability policy.
• 32:51
  As the company continues to grow, we need to be even more conscious about it and bring in some, I don't want to say stricter guidelines, but...
• 32:58
  no one guidelines within the building on how we operate.
• 33:02
  So that's a new incentive that you'll hopefully start seeing more of within the DNA of Go Way as we move forward into the next generation of travelers.
• 33:14
  Now this is another very important one for a whole lot of different reasons.
• 33:18
  And again, we have a podcast coming up about this one for more details is in is solo women and ancestral travel.
• 33:28
  and out is a sort of, know, the terminology is more ordinary travel.
• 33:33
  But the point is, GoA has introduced a whole range of uh solo travel in general, but particularly solo travel for women.
• 33:44
  Renee, as you're a woman and a female, do want to expand on that one?
• 33:49
  Absolutely done.
• 33:50
  Something that's very passionate, m
• 33:52
  Once again, we've done some studies and the researchers oh showed us that there was a 70 % increase in the Google search results for solo women travel in 2025.
• 34:03
  I mean, that's a number that we can't ignore.
• 34:05
  And it really sits with that 45 plus market.
• 34:08
  And some of these women that sit within that age category, they might be suddenly children free.
• 34:14
  Their husband doesn't necessarily want to travel with them.
• 34:17
  ah They might be a widower.
• 34:19
  They might have just been through a divorce, whatever it may be.
• 34:22
  but what we're really starting to see is solo women then wanting to connect and they actually want to uh not just as we put it that surface level vacation but they want an
• 34:33
  immersive experience that really changes them, a more personalized journey.
• 34:37
  So you will see that we have just released actually in January some solo women travel but on the ancestral side we're also really looking at that as a company and seeing that
• 34:48
  females particularly in groups but
• 34:51
  obviously can also be the way themselves.
• 34:52
  I really want to trace their ancestral roots and go back to that and just discover a little bit more about them themselves and their family trees, shall we say.
• 35:02
  uh it's a really interesting segment and we're starting to see that surge in 2026.
• 35:09
  And there's also been, I've noticed too, speaking to some of our VPs and commercial managers too, on the female side of it, that a lot of travelers in general, but again,
• 35:20
  particularly female travelers, solo or groups, are requesting female guides in the countries they're visiting, particularly in regions where maybe female liberation isn't as
• 35:32
  forward thinking as other countries.
• 35:34
  So, um
• 35:35
  We also did a fantastic, again, I can't remember the name of the lady I spoke to, beautiful podcast with a woman who runs female empowerment programs in South Africa,
• 35:45
  trains them, gets them the basic stuff of health, schooling, and then um high level learning for a professional career, but particularly in the field of tourism.
• 35:57
  So training young females to be wilderness guides and safari guides in South Africa.
• 36:02
  So I recommend you look at that podcast as a perfect example.
• 36:05
  of how the partners that GoA works with are very conscious of that.
• 36:08
  And then how GoA has now embraced that very much.
• 36:11
  And as Renee said, with the whole product line um of solo travel in general, but particularly solo female travel.
• 36:18
  And on the ancestral side, we didn't bring this up as a destination that's very popular, but it ties in well with what Renee just said, is GoA has seen a lot of success with the
• 36:27
  African-American community out of the US with groups to Ghana, tracing their heritage and their ancestry.
• 36:35
  So that is another trending destination for one for groups and two for ancestral travel, Ghana in West Africa.
• 36:44
  This is another interesting one, which I wasn't sort of aware of.
• 36:48
  I know that when I most travelers these days, GoA deals with for the most part, that we sell three to five star, we sell the whole gamut, but on average we're selling the four to
• 36:57
  five on average.
• 36:59
  But a lot of people are in for
• 37:02
  indulging in luxury now and the out aspect of this is not saving first and traveling later, i.e.
• 37:07
  saving up your money now to enjoy a luxurious um vacation down the track.
• 37:13
  It's doing it now while you can.
• 37:15
  um I think a stat you might bring up in relation to this is uh a lot of uh younger generation are not so focused on families, i.e.
• 37:24
  having kids at least early or younger.
• 37:27
  They might put it off to later or not at all.
• 37:29
  So there's a...
• 37:30
  there's higher disposable income on offer.
• 37:33
  So people are looking at, you know, dropping that dollar now on a nice trip versus saving in the piggy bank for later on.
• 37:41
  That's right.
• 37:41
  My husband hates this one because I certainly am true to this.
• 37:45
  ah see for my mental wealth, uh my mental health, not wealth.
• 37:49
  ah I definitely see travel as being...
• 37:52
  It doesn't make me wealthy by traveling, but...
• 37:56
  It does with experiences.
• 37:58
  And for me personally, this is something that I've prioritized in my life.
• 38:01
  And we're starting to see that more and more that people really are putting aside a part of their budget every year and they're indulging.
• 38:08
  They're staying in beautiful hotels.
• 38:10
  They're upgrading their experiences.
• 38:12
  They're wanting that private guided and so forth.
• 38:14
  So not only have you got these higher income earners in the millennial and Gen Z category ah to your point on that have mighted.
• 38:22
  delayed um having babies or buying a house and all those types of milestones.
• 38:27
  Or you've got people like me that have the house and the baby and have decided to still travel and indulge, like treat yourself, right?
• 38:35
  You only live once, so why not?
• 38:37
  So we are definitely seeing an increase in the average spend of bookings with people at GOA.
• 38:43
  I think on a weekly basis, we're seeing these $100,000 plus bookings come through.
• 38:48
  And it's incredible when you see who's actually traveling.
• 38:51
  I definitely think indulging is in and let's out, save for later.
• 38:56
  You know what?
• 38:57
  Live in the moment, enjoy life and recommend.
• 39:02
  I always say try and beat your client's budget.
• 39:04
  Just recommend it to them because you never know.
• 39:06
  They might upgrade and take that suite instead of the leading room category and so forth.
• 39:11
  Yeah, that's a good bit of advice.
• 39:13
  And was going to expand on the term luxury.
• 39:15
  uh Yeah, most people, as you pointed out in your description there, you know, it's the five-star this or the luxurious that, but it doesn't have to be the level of accommodation
• 39:25
  or experience.
• 39:26
  It could be the fact that you're going to bring, as you do, and I do without kids, bring your family with you or build the trip, which pushes the cost up.
• 39:34
  it becomes a, not so much a luxury commitment.
• 39:38
  It's a cost commitment by taking three or four people, all the grandparents taking the family as well.
• 39:44
  So it could be considered luxury in that respect by taking multiple people.
• 39:49
  most of my friends um with kids are like that.
• 39:52
  They want to travel with their children, be them young children or older children, um because that is the investment, as you said at the beginning, again, that it is an
• 40:05
  investment in your kids and their future.
• 40:08
  and their opinions and their outlooks on life.
• 40:10
  So that can be, to me, viewed as a luxury indulgence by taking extended family on your trips as well.
• 40:18
  um Another one that's becoming more more popular in would be sports tourism and active adventures, which I'm a yay, yay, go active adventure stuff.
• 40:29
  And out is the passive wellness.
• 40:31
  Now, I don't mean wellness is out.
• 40:33
  Wellness is still very, very popular, it's important we're here, the passive.
• 40:37
  meaning just sitting down doing nothing all inclusive type resorts where we're seeing people traveling to attend sports, to play sports and or be active and adventure and going
• 40:48
  back to kids traveling.
• 40:49
  I'm sadly not with them, but my oldest son is down in Patagonia right now doing treks around Fitzroy and Calafati and Torres del Paine National Park.
• 40:57
  So Renee, you're a very active person as is your family because when you go skiing on the weekend, your boy's with you, your husband's with you.
• 41:05
  you're all very, very active.
• 41:07
  again, can you expand on that one for us?
• 41:09
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 41:10
  And right now we're actually planning a trip to Switzerland.
• 41:13
  My son, we're going to do lots of hiking with him there.
• 41:17
  And I think that's what it's all about.
• 41:19
  It's about getting to the destination and wellness can is not necessarily always sparse.
• 41:24
  It could be wellness in that you're being active and you're doing different adventures when you're there.
• 41:29
  But another area that I think that we're seeing a little bit of a boost in is because it's the Olympics.
• 41:34
  Suddenly we all want to be more active when the Olympics is on.
• 41:38
  and the World Cup that's coming to North America this year as well.
• 41:42
  So we actually launched, Don, uh some soccer packages, UK soccer packages in December to coincide with the upcoming World Cup.
• 41:51
  So I think it's just a natural thing when people are seeing the Olympics, the World Cup, things of that nature, they want to get out and incorporate that in their vacation as
• 41:58
  well.
• 42:00
  Yeah, it's, um, it's a big thing.
• 42:02
  These big sports events naturally the Olympics going on right now as a recording, the soccer world couple football, if you're from Europe, woke up coming up in North America
• 42:11
  this year.
• 42:12
  I think it's next year or the year after you got the rugby world cup, which is in Australia.
• 42:17
  Um, so it draws people to those destinations who love the sport as well.
• 42:21
  One thing I want to make clear though is while go away can build everything in and around those big sporting events, we generally don't get involved.
• 42:29
  in the ticket sales.
• 42:30
  So just be aware of that.
• 42:31
  uh There are companies who specialize in that.
• 42:35
  that's where you get the tickets, but getting there, all the stuff in and around accommodation, et cetera, that's what GoA can do very well, particularly again, on our
• 42:43
  group side of things.
• 42:44
  That's their specialty, naturally.
• 42:47
  So they're very good at organizing any sports clubs uh who might want to go and partake in a...
• 42:54
  a game.
• 42:55
  I believe I think you brought this up, Renee, I didn't know this.
• 42:57
  Oh, no, it was actually Craig.
• 42:58
  Craig's our VP of wholesale, and he's bit of a football nut.
• 43:03
  our football packages for the UK or Europe, I didn't know this that the games there, even though they might be scheduled for Saturday, they can be moved last minute to a Sunday, or
• 43:14
  a Monday or something like that.
• 43:15
  And we've built our football packages to accommodate any scheduling changes as well.
• 43:21
  So that's an important thing to remember with that, that we've taken that into account.
• 43:24
  Because again, we're specialists.
• 43:26
  We do our research, we look into what can happen and so we built in and around that concept as well.
• 43:33
  The last one we have is, and this one I've always been a fan of and I love this and I always make sure that when we travel with our kids particularly, that we build this into
• 43:43
  any itinerary in any country, in is immersive community driven experiences.
• 43:49
  So getting close to the countries and the cultures you're visiting.
• 43:53
  And out is naturally, and Goi's never been this, which is why we love it here.
• 43:57
  Out is cookie cutter tours, the stuff that's just the same old, same old.
• 44:01
  So Rene, do want to expand on that one for us as well?
• 44:05
  Absolutely, Dawn.
• 44:05
  think people are over just ticking off boxes.
• 44:08
  They actually want to immerse themselves in the destination.
• 44:10
  They want to see more.
• 44:12
  They want to linger longer.
• 44:13
  That's what we're absolutely seeing.
• 44:15
  But another thing that we have seen are people are building trips around the ranking of the global.
• 44:20
  happiness index, the GHI.
• 44:23
  So they're wanting to travel to those countries that have those highest scores of people that are happy because in those types of destinations, they find the culture to prioritize
• 44:34
  warmth, community, connection, and areas that we're typically seeing uh increase are the Nordic regions.
• 44:40
  I know you've been to Medidon yourself ah and we're starting to see those types of countries in the Nordics increase.
• 44:46
  m
• 44:47
  and places like New Zealand, we're starting to see, Australia, um these countries all rank really highly on the global happiness index.
• 44:56
  So that could be a little hint for you as a travel advisor to take a look at that index because maybe that could be a good way to ah sway your clients or see what's next coming
• 45:07
  up as a trend.
• 45:09
  Yeah, it's interesting you bring that up, but also the cultural aspect of it.
• 45:13
  Cause as you were mentioning Australia from the happiness index and yeah, of course Australia is wonderful.
• 45:18
  Best country in the world.
• 45:19
  We're both biased of course.
• 45:21
  Um, but I did a podcast with the South Australian tourism board recently and it was discussed there, the increasing demand in indigenous experiences, Aboriginal experiences
• 45:35
  in South Australia, which you can do.
• 45:37
  A lot of people think immediately of Queensland and the Northern Territory, but there are experiences throughout Australia because the Aboriginal ah peoples occupy the entire East,
• 45:47
  West, North, South, and Tasmania Island.
• 45:50
  ah And what they said, one is the demand for those experiences, cultural interaction, but also the demand for the people that they learn from, like the guides being of Indigenous
• 46:03
  heritage as well.
• 46:04
  So it's not just...
• 46:06
  Again, the cookie cutter thing, it's actual indigenous populations teaching you about the way they do live and the way they lived in the past.
• 46:13
  So that's a very big thing for Australia.
• 46:16
  And I want to give a shout out again, you got to listen to our podcast where you have some really good ones out there.
• 46:21
  do one, it hasn't been released yet, this one, Mongolia.
• 46:24
  And I was discussing it with our, Terrell, our operator there.
• 46:30
  And most people will be aware if they go to Mongolia.
• 46:34
  that you would go out and probably do a day trip, if not an overnight, and stay in a yurt with a indigenous Mongolian.
• 46:41
  And there's a whole lot of stats and figures that I think 80 % of Mongolia is still living an indigenous lifestyle.
• 46:47
  It's quite fascinating.
• 46:48
  But what I learned about it too, within Mongolia, you have what you would generalize as traditional Mongolians.
• 46:54
  Then you have the eagle hunters who live on the far uh west of Mongolia, on the border with Kazakhstan.
• 47:03
  And then you have to the North on the border with Russia, the reindeer people.
• 47:08
  And I asked Tarell about it.
• 47:09
  If I went to see all three different tribes, peoples, would it be a similar experience?
• 47:14
  He said, no, it'd be completely different within Mongolia.
• 47:16
  Those three indigenous groups are completely different, different languages, different ways of life.
• 47:21
  um So if you're looking for an off the beaten track Mongolia, but more and more people, again, that's just an extreme example of how people are looking for that difference in
• 47:32
  travel.
• 47:33
  and that cultural interaction, wanting to really see how people do live now and, and all did live in the past.
• 47:41
  And we have so many opportunities for that around the world from Australia, Mongolia to the Andes to Africa, African continent to even Europe itself.
• 47:50
  ah We did one in, oh, I can't remember one of the Eastern countries, Bulgaria, maybe we did a homestay for a day and that was fascinating itself, completely different for a whole
• 48:02
  lot of different.
• 48:02
  different reasons.
• 48:04
  So there are ins and outs for 26, our top 10 trending destinations, we threw in a few extra ones there for good for good measure like Ghana.
• 48:15
  Renee, anything else you'd like to leave our audience with in respect to what's coming?
• 48:22
  Again, we cover pretty much the trends as we see them in going.
• 48:25
  Anything else you want to add about the upcoming year 26 that people should be aware of?
• 48:31
  Look, I think it's going to be a really strong year for all of us.
• 48:33
  If we can just take January aside, we, like I said, go away, had a record breaking year.
• 48:38
  So just continue to educate yourself because education is power.
• 48:43
  Don has an incredible travel ah academy out there.
• 48:46
  So if there's a country that you want to specialize in or have that niche, I would highly recommend educating yourself on that.
• 48:53
  And our travel academy is one of the best ways to go to do that.
• 48:56
  And by all means, our destination specialists are all here for you to help you navigate the world and help you curate some amazing experiences.
• 49:04
  And we also do offer three-way conference calls.
• 49:07
  So if you do have a client going to Mongolia or one of the destinations maybe we've mentioned today and you're not too familiar with it, please use that service.
• 49:16
  It really increases the close rate significantly.
• 49:21
  Yep.
• 49:21
  So we have all the tools at hand.
• 49:23
  I've mentioned um at InfiniM today in our conversation about our podcasts and webinars.
• 49:28
  So a lot of details about countries and styles of travel we've discussed today.
• 49:33
  You can get all the nitty gritty listening to that.
• 49:36
  You can get that on all your favorite podcast platforms and or YouTube where we put a video version of our podcasts and of course our webinars.
• 49:43
  Some are yet to be released.
• 49:45
  Things like Pantonell and Solo Women, but it will be coming out soon.
• 49:49
  So it's another good, really, uh really good educational training resources, our podcasts and webinars as well.
• 49:55
  The Go Way Pro Travel Academy, gowaypro.com uh will highlight a lot of stuff that uh is coming up.
• 50:03
  Any news, any trends that we're seeing, you can get that information there.
• 50:07
  Of course, your wonderful account managers, all the boys and Michelle out there are always on hand to help you as well, should you need any in-office training or support.
• 50:17
  you can reach out to them or their contact information is on goapro.com.
• 50:23
  So on that note, I'm not sure, looking at my watch here, right on an hour.
• 50:28
  I think that's enough information for everyone today, don't you think, Renno?
• 50:31
  Yeah, I think it's a lot to take in, hopefully everyone enjoyed it.
• 50:35
  Yeah, I hope so as well.
• 50:37
  And as we just said, we're all here to help you in any way we can.
• 50:40
  And at the end of the day, your destination specialists are your go-to person to give you all this that you need in creating that customized bespoke itinerary.
• 50:49
  And again, don't forget our groups department who are also there to help you customize that perfect group for your sports event, ah for your family, for your large group or
• 51:01
  small group as the case may be.
• 51:03
  So on that note, thank you, Renee, as always for your time from what is sunny Kelowna at the moment and to our travel partners out there.
• 51:10
  Again, we know how busy you are and we always appreciate you taking some time to listen into us and our information and until next time.
• 51:19
  Thanks everyone.
• 51:20
  you uh
• 51:38
  you