6 Shifts in American Travel That Hint at What’s Next for the Top End
A new snapshot of American wanderlust reveals how generational habits, bucket-list dreams, and wellness priorities trickle upward to influence ultra-wealthy travelers.
Photo: Yoav Aziz/Unsplash
Americans may only take a couple of leisure trips a year, but how they dream, plan, and talk about those journeys is shifting in ways that ripple far beyond the mainstream. A new Talker Research survey of 2,000 consumers, conducted in May 2025, offers a snapshot of changing behaviors by generation.
For luxury suppliers, the topline spending numbers—$3,409 annually on travel, $1,733 for a “fun” domestic week—are immaterial. But what matters is what those attitudes reveal about how people of all income levels are approaching travel, and how those expectations trickle upward into the ultra-high-net-worth space, where clients spend that much before lunch.
Here are six takeaways worth watching:
Generations on the Move
Millennials are the most travel-hungry cohort, averaging 2.9 trips annually and nearly $4,000 in yearly spend. Boomers travel less often, and nearly half say they’ve never left the United States. Talker found that younger travelers lean on TikTok, Instagram, and increasingly AI for inspiration, while boomers remain anchored in word-of-mouth.
Those digital currents matter for wealthy travelers. A Virtuoso survey earlier this year found that 70% of advisors see Gen Z and Millennials reshaping demand, often bringing social media inspiration into six-figure itineraries. That doesn’t mean billionaires are planning on TikTok, but it does mean their children and grandchildren are influencing destination choice and aesthetics in ways that affect the whole family travel unit.
Bucket Lists, Reimagined
Talker’s “top 10” bucket-list items look familiar: Northern Lights in Iceland, cherry blossoms in Japan, the pyramids in Egypt, a road trip across the U.S. The key shift is expectation. These are no longer seen as backpacker milestones but as experiences to be curated, narrated, and delivered with comfort.
In practice, that means private aurora domes with dedicated guides, sakura festivals accessed with after-hours entry, or Egyptologist-led tours of closed tombs. It, too, aligns with Virtuoso’s 2025 trend report, which found demand rising fastest for “rare access” experiences that turn universal dreams into singular stories. The mainstream list may be generic, but how it is consumed at the top end is anything but.
Solo Travel’s Momentum
Talker reports that 44% of respondents have taken a solo vacation, with nearly half describing it as more rewarding than traveling with others. Millennials lead this movement, and men were nearly twice as likely as women to go it alone.
At the luxury level, this translates into demand for products designed with solo travelers in mind: private villas and residences with wellness programming, yacht charters marketed for single-occupancy, and boutique retreats that balance independence with optional community. Forbes flagged solo travel as one of 2025’s fastest-growing luxury segments, with affluent clients increasingly seeking “transformational solitude” in safe, service-rich environments.
Anxiety Beneath the Wanderlust
Mainstream travelers describe saving for months—cutting back on restaurants and shopping—to afford a trip. More telling is that 62% say they’re worried about tariffs and recession pressures increasing costs, and 14% have already canceled upcoming plans.
The lesson for the wealthy isn’t price sensitivity but risk perception. Visa’s 2025 affluent tourism outlook noted that high-net-worth households (earning more than $200,000) account for a quarter of all global travel spend, and yet even they want reassurance that their investment is frictionless. That’s one reason ultra-luxury operators—from private aviation to expedition cruises—are emphasizing seamlessness, flexible terms, and “one-call” solutions. The psychology is universal: Whether you’re saving three months’ rent or booking a $250,000 yacht week, no one likes uncertainty.
Travel as Therapy
Perhaps the most compelling Talker insight is the link between mental health and wanderlust. Two-thirds of respondents said they feel mentally better after a trip, and those who self-reported “excellent” mental health were also the most passionate travelers.
That dovetails with luxury’s pivot into wellbeing. The Global Wellness Institute projects wellness tourism will more than double to $1.4 trillion by 2027, and resorts from Canyon Ranch to Aman are layering in diagnostics, sleep science, and longevity medicine. Elle calls it the “calmcation”—a growing trend of luxury, silent, tech-free travel that elevates rest and mindfulness to a curated experience. In this sense, Talker’s mainstream data validates the high-end’s most aggressive growth sector.
The Social Share Imperative
Talker found that 39% of Americans feel obliged to post about their trips, and a third admit they sometimes choose activities purely for the content. Unsurprisingly, this is most pronounced among Gen Z and Millennials.
In luxury, that dynamic manifests differently. It’s less about TikTok virality and more about discrete social currency: The right image shared within a private WhatsApp group, or a dinner staged with such visual drama it becomes part of the guest’s personal legend. HospitalityNet research has shown that even UHNW travelers weigh “photo-worthiness” as a factor in choosing hotels and experiences. The line between substance and spectacle has never been thinner.
Bottom Line
Talker’s numbers may reflect middle-market behaviors, but the underlying themes of digitally driven inspiration, the elevation of bucket lists, solo travel, risk anxiety, wellness, and shareable experiences are reshaping expectations across the spectrum.
For the ultra-wealthy, those forces arrive amplified, translated into ever-higher standards of access, personalization, and narrative. The survey is less a map of how billionaires travel today than a weather vane showing where desire is blowing next.
