Electric bike tours, carpooling, and even electric camper vans are all the rage. These modes of transportation reduce your carbon footprint and offer unique opportunities to explore the world at a slower, more intimate pace.

Looking back at the pivotal trends of 2023, the industry saw a massive shift toward "Slow Travel" and "Carbon Transparency." Travelers increasingly rejected "check-list" tourism in favor of staying longer in one location to reduce their transport footprint and support local economies more deeply. Another major trend was the rise of "Train Bragging" (the opposite of flight shaming), where travelers opted for high-speed rail across Europe and Asia over short-haul flights, viewing the journey as part of the experience. We also saw the mainstreaming of "Regenerative Travel," where the goal wasn't just to "leave no trace" but to leave a destination better than you found it—for example, through hotel programs that fund coral reef restoration or local education. Accommodations also shifted away from single-use plastics toward circular economies. These 2023 trends laid the foundation for the "Eco-Accountability" era of 2026, where digital carbon tracking for every segment of a trip has become a standard feature for most major booking platforms.