‘Chronocations’ among 2026 trends from British Airways Holidays
British travellers are resetting the clock, embracing nearly-naked holidays and a new wave of ‘Stream Parks’, according to the 2026 Travel Trends Report by British Airways Holidays and Globetrender. Robbie Hodges reports
Last year, British Airways Holidays and Globetrender identified trends such as Paperback-Packers, Taste Tripping and Trad Holidays, all of which grew over the course of 2025. The new British Airways Holidays 2026 Travel Trends Report, the third produced with Globetrender, points to a shift towards holidays that prioritise personal comfort, flexible time and screen-based worlds made IRL.
The report is based on research from Globetrender’s in-house team, insights from British Airways and a YouGov survey of 2,104 UK adults. Alongside five key behavioural trends, it also highlights destination search data for 2026 travel.
Rising destinations based on holiday package searches include Bermuda, St Kitts, Turks and Caicos, Grenada, Crete, Costa Rica, Nashville and Antigua.
The most searched destinations for 2026 travel remain long-haul favourites, led by New York and Orlando, followed by Dubai, the Maldives, Barbados, Las Vegas, Cancun, St Lucia, the Dominican Republic and Antigua.
One of the report’s headline trends is “Chronocations”, a term used to describe trips where travellers stop organising days around the clock. British Airways Holidays says 19% of UK travellers already ignore the time entirely on holiday, choosing to eat, sleep and go out when they feel like it rather than sticking to normal schedules. The report links this to a wider desire to live in line with personal sleep patterns, not fixed work rhythms, and points to late-night and early-morning activities that treat time as flexible rather than fixed.
Another theme, “Uninhibited Holidays”, focuses on self-acceptance when travelling, especially around what people wear and how comfortable they feel in swimwear or in shared wellness spaces. The report says around one in eight UK adults feel more confident about what they wear abroad than at home and nearly one in ten feel just as comfortable wherever they are. It also notes that 31% of UK adults think body-positive experiences are more socially acceptable now than a decade ago, linking this to the idea that some travellers want to step away from social media’s “AI-perfect bodies” and switch off.
Tech-led escapism appears in “Stream Parks”, which describes theme parks and attractions built around streaming shows and games. British Airways Holidays says 38% of UK travellers would like to step inside a favourite show or video game, with the report pointing to developments such as Netflix House in the US, iQIYI mixed-reality experiences in China and Minecraft attractions planned in the UK and US. The idea is that stories that once stayed on screens are becoming physical places people travel to, blurring entertainment with destination choice.
Money, and how people pay for travel, comes through in “The Valueverse”, which looks at loyalty schemes shifting from upgrades to wider experiences. The report says 74% of British Airways Holidays customers shop more often with brands when they are members of a loyalty programme, up 7% in the last 12 months. It argues that points are increasingly seen as a way to protect holiday plans during a high cost of living, by turning everyday spending into travel value and making bigger trips feel more reachable.
Wellness continues with “Neurosurfing”, described as holidays designed to support cognitive health rather than just physical rest. The report says 26% of UK adults feel sleep deprivation affects their mental balance, compared with 16% who cite social media and digital content. It suggests some travellers are moving beyond classic “fly and flop” breaks and digital detoxes, choosing structured activities such as breathwork, meditation and dance that aim to shift how the brain feels during time off.
The final trend, “Vintage Junkets”, reflects travellers seeking retro experiences and second-hand finds as a way to escape what the report calls “global blandness”. It says 47% agree that vintage or retro experiences can offer a more authentic connection to a destination, with travel used as a chance for surprise rather than algorithm-led recommendations.
Jenny Southan, editor, founder and CEO of Globetrender and author of the report, says: “In a world shaped by economic pressure, digital saturation and rising social fragmentation, holidays are becoming spaces of transformation – opportunities for people to test new identities, restore mental balance and discover forms of joy that everyday routines suppress. This shift marks a profound redefinition of what a holiday is for: not just escape, but expansion.
"The findings in this report show a British traveller who is more experimental, more introspective and more values-driven than ever before. Whether it’s embracing body-positive liberation through Uninhibited Holidays, stepping inside screen-born worlds via Stream Parks, rethinking loyalty through The Valueverse, syncing holidays with biological rhythms in Chronocations or exploring the frontiers of cognitive wellbeing through Neurosurfing, what unites these trends is a desire to feel more alive when we travel."
Andrew Flintham, managing director of British airways holidays, says the trends show “the prevailing interest in wellness culture” still shaping how people take trips, while points and loyalty are becoming a bigger part of the holiday equation. In practice, the report suggests travel trends 2026 will be shaped by travellers who still want the joy of a break, but are looking for holidays that feel more personal, more flexible and more mentally restorative than before.
