Experiential Travel Statistics 2026

Key takeaways

• The global tours, activities and attractions market was worth $271 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $342 billion by 2029 (Arival, 2026).
• Experiences are growing about 8% a year, against 5% for travel overall.
• Only 33% of experience gross bookings were made online in 2025, against 64% across the wider travel industry.
• OTAs' share of tour and activity operators' bookings rose to 37% in 2025, while operators' own website bookings fell (Arival).
• U.S. hotel guests spend about $106 off-property for every $100 on the room, before transportation, much of it on dining, recreation and activities (DestinationCommerce analysis of Oxford Economics data).

Experiences market size

Tours, activities and attractions are travel's third-largest sector, worth more than a quarter of a trillion dollars a year worldwide.

1. The global travel experiences market (tours, activities and attractions) was worth $271 billion in 2025 (Arival & Phocuswright).
2. The market is projected to reach $342 billion by 2029 (Arival, 2026).
3. Experiences are travel's third-largest sector (Arival).

Source: Arival & Phocuswright, The Outlook for Travel Experiences 2019–2029 (2026).

Growth: experiences vs the rest of travel

Experiences are growing faster than every other major part of travel. Growth is cooling after the post-pandemic surge but stays ahead of the market.

4. The experiences sector has been growing about 8% a year, compared with 5% for the wider travel industry (Arival & Phocuswright).
5. Experience bookings grew 17% in 2024 (Phocuswright & Arival, Travel Experiences 2026).
6. Growth is expected to settle at around 6% a year through 2029, still faster than most other travel categories (Phocuswright & Arival).
7. U.S. travelers spent more year on year across every category of experiences (tours, activities and attractions) in 2025, even while cutting back on other parts of the trip (Arival, U.S. Experiences Traveler Outlook 2026, 800 travelers).

Sources: Arival & Phocuswright (2026); Arival (2026).

Activities: the fastest-growing segment

Within experiences, activities (outdoor adventure, wellness, classes, water sports) are pulling ahead of tours and attractions.

8. The activities segment grew from $21 billion in 2020 to $95 billion in 2025 (Arival & Phocuswright).
9. Activities are projected to reach $127 billion by 2029, growing 7–8% a year, faster than tours or attractions (Arival & Phocuswright).
10. Activities will account for 37% of the global experiences market by 2029, up from about 32% in 2023 (Arival & Phocuswright).

Source: Arival, "The Rise of the Activity Traveler" (Mar 2026).

How experiences are booked: online vs offline

Experiences are travel's least-digitised category. Two in three are still bought offline or in person, which leaves room for whoever makes them easy to book.

11. Only 33% of experience gross bookings were made online in 2025 (Arival & Phocuswright).
12. By comparison, 64% of gross bookings across the wider travel industry are made online (Arival & Phocuswright).
13. More than 70% of experience operators are small or micro-businesses: a fragmented supply that has never consolidated the way air, hotel and cruise did (Phocuswright & Arival).
14. The overall share of tour and activity bookings made online held steady at 60% between 2024 and 2025, by Arival's operator-survey measure (note: a different measurement basis from the 33% gross-bookings figure) (Arival).
15. Travelers rarely book a single experience: most trips with experiences include several (Phocuswright & Arival).

Sources: Arival & Phocuswright (2026); Arival, Global Operator Landscape (2026).

OTAs and experience distribution

Third-party marketplaces are taking a growing share of experience bookings, as they did with hotel rooms a decade ago.

16. OTAs' share of tour and activity operators' bookings rose to 37% in 2025 (Arival, Global Operator Landscape, 5,000+ operators).
17. Operators reported the steepest decline in direct website bookings Arival has recorded (Arival, 2026).
18. OTA commissions for tour operators typically run 20–30% per booking (Zaui, booking-software vendor estimate, 2026).
19. GetYourGuide's gross merchandise value from North American customers grew 34% in the first half of 2026, against 27% globally (GetYourGuide, Jul 2026).
20. Tripadvisor's Experiences segment (Viator) grew revenue and gross booking value about 3% year on year in Q2 2026 (Tripadvisor Q2 2026 results). Different metric from GetYourGuide's, so not a like-for-like comparison.
21. Airbnb relaunched Experiences in 2025. Its "Nights and Seats Booked" grew 10% year on year in Q2 2026 (Airbnb, Aug 2026).

Sources: Arival (2026); Zaui (2026); GetYourGuide (2026); Tripadvisor (2026); Airbnb (2026).

Traveler spending on experiences

Travelers are protecting experience budgets even as they cut back elsewhere, and higher-income travelers are a growing share of the market.

22. U.S. hotel guests spent $249.1 billion off-property in 2024 on dining, recreation, retail and other goods and services, excluding transportation: about $106 for every $100 spent on lodging (DestinationCommerce calculation from Oxford Economics for AHLA data, 2024). Full breakdown.
23. 24% of U.S. summer travelers plan to increase their main-trip budget in 2026, up from 19% in 2025. Only 11% plan to cut it, down from 14% (Deloitte, 4,003 Americans).
24. Only 45% of Americans plan a summer vacation with paid lodging in 2026, the lowest in six years (Deloitte).
25. Travelers earning $100,000+ make up 55% of the U.S. travelling public in 2026, up from 50% in 2025 (Deloitte).
26. 79% of U.S. luxury travelers surveyed (500+) plan to spend more or much more on travel in 2026 than in 2025 (Flywire, Jan 2026).

Sources: Oxford Economics for AHLA via DestinationCommerce (2025); Deloitte 2026 Summer Travel Survey; Flywire (2026).

Who books experiences

Younger travelers and high-income millennials drive experience demand.

27. High-income U.S. millennials (earning $200k+) plan about 1.2× as many trips as other travelers, with 1.6× the budget for their marquee trip (Deloitte, 2026).
28. Travelers aged 18–34 outspend older generations on tours and activities in Europe, despite tighter budgets (Arival & Civitatis press release, 2026 European Experiences Traveler Outlook).
29. Nearly half of Latin American travelers took their most recent trip with children (Phocuswright & Arival, The Latin American Experiences Traveler, 1,200 travelers).

Sources: Deloitte (2026); Arival & Civitatis (2026); Phocuswright & Arival (2026).

AI and experiences

AI is now part of how travelers discover what to do. Booking still happens with trusted brands, but AI increasingly decides which brands get considered.

30. Seven in 10 Latin American travelers use AI to help plan a trip, rising to 80% among travelers under 35 (Phocuswright & Arival, 2026).
31. 52% of UK travelers use AI for trip planning, up 12 points in a year (MMGY Travel Intelligence, 2026).
32. 40% of travelers use AI to help build itineraries, and 48% say it helps them discover places they wouldn't have found otherwise (Expedia Group, The AI Trust Gap, 2026).
33. 43% of high-income U.S. millennials use generative AI in trip planning (Deloitte, 2026).
34. Lighthouse ran 4,545 ChatGPT prompts across nine destinations: ChatGPT surfaced only 10% of Tokyo's hotels and 13% of Paris's (Lighthouse, Jun 2026).

Sources: Phocuswright & Arival (2026); MMGY (2026); Expedia Group (2026); Deloitte (2026); Lighthouse (2026).

What it means for hotels

Guests are already in the destination and spending more around the hotel than in it. But most of that spending goes through OTAs, marketplaces or offline sellers the hotel never sees.

35. Guests spend more off-property on dining, recreation, retail and other goods and services ($249.1B) than on hotel rooms ($235.5B) (DestinationCommerce analysis of Oxford Economics data).
36. ResortPass, which sells day access to hotel pools, spas and cabanas, works with 2,700+ hotel and spa partners across the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean (ResortPass, 27 May 2026), and signed an agreement with Marriott International in 2026.
37. 77% of travelers are likely to book multiple parts of a trip on the same platform (Expedia Group, 2026): the business that sells the stay is well placed to sell the experiences too.
38. DestinationCommerce estimates U.S. hotels could transact $27.3 billion a year in destination commerce beyond rooms and ordinary F&B, including $7.2 billion from local partner commerce such as tours, dining, guides and wellness (methodology; DropDesk model estimates, not forecasts).
39. See also: Selling local experiences · What is destination commerce? · Hotel Day Pass Report

FAQ

How big is the experiential travel market?

About $271 billion globally in 2025, projected to reach $342 billion by 2029 (Arival, 2026).

Is experiential travel growing?

Yes. Experiences have grown about 8% a year against 5% for travel overall, and bookings grew 17% in 2024. Growth is expected to settle at around 6% a year through 2029.

What is the fastest-growing type of experience?

Activities, such as outdoor adventure, wellness and classes. They grew from $21B in 2020 to $95B in 2025 and are projected to reach $127B by 2029.

What share of experiences are booked online?

About 33% of experience gross bookings in 2025, against 64% for travel overall.

How much do OTAs take from tour operators?

OTAs handled 37% of operators' bookings in 2025, typically at 20–30% commission per booking.

Do travelers use AI to plan experiences?

Increasingly: 52% of UK travelers and 70% of Latin American travelers use AI for trip planning. Most still book with a trusted brand.

What does experiential travel mean for hotels?

Guests spend about $106 off-property for every $100 on the room (before transportation), and most of it flows to businesses the hotel never sees. Hotels that make local experiences bookable can capture part of that spend.

Methodology & sources