Episode 8 | The Biggest Travel Trends Shaping Summer 2026

The summer travel market is in full swing, and despite economic and geo-political uncertainty, demand for holidays has remained resilient.

Consumers are booking differently, spending differently and increasingly looking for value without compromising on experience.

Joining us today is Cat Jordan from Travelzoo, who has a front-row seat to what millions of travellers are searching, booking and talking about right now.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:03

One conversation, three perspectives, honest debate on the story in the travel industry.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

This episode tackles a lively big trend of hot debate across the travel industry.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Every week will be joined by guests for honest conversations, strong opinions, and lively debate. I'm Will, I'm James, I'm Andy.

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Welcome to Let's Talk Travel.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

With the ongoing conflict and geopolitical uncertainty once again making travelers question where and when they should travel, confidence is slowly returning and the world begins to feel a little more connected again. The travel industry is starting to find its rhythm. Consumers haven't stopped traveling, they're simply travelling differently. Here in the UK, one of the hottest summers in recent memory has seen beaches packed, campsites full, and staycations once again becoming an attractive and often cheaper alternative to heading overseas at the last minute. At the same time, airlines reopening, routes across the Middle East, reconnecting travellers not only with the destinations like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but also creating more important gateways back to Asia, Australia, and beyond. And while much of the spotlight continues to fall on airlines and package holidays, Cruz continues to quietly build momentum, attracting everyone from first-time cruisers to seasoned travelers by constantly delivering outstanding value and experiences that are hard to match elsewhere. So today we want to ask the question: what are the biggest consumer travel trends shaping the market right now? What's driving booking decisions? Where are people choosing to holiday? And what do those choices tell us about the future of travel? Let's Talk Travel. Hi Kat. Welcome to Let's Talk Travel Podcast and thank you for joining Andy and me today. For those of you who don't know the wonderful Kat Jordan, Kat is the communications director at Travel Zoo, our go-to expert on all things consumer travel. She has her finger firmly on the pulse of what Travel Zoo's millions of members are searching for, booking and talking about, giving her a unique insight into the latest travel trends, consumer behaviours, and perhaps more importantly, where people are looking to book their next holiday. So let's start with the destinations, Kat. What are the consumers booking today that perhaps they weren't 12 months ago? And what's genuinely surprising you with the market at the moment?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Hi guys, pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. This is going to be fun. I would say that the usual faves are still the usual faves. Us Brits are creatures of habit. When we asked TravelZoo members where they wanted to go in 2026, they still said Spain, Italy, France, and you know the rest of Britain is no exception. So the faves are still the faves. What I would say though is one of the new favourites is firmly on our doorstep. James, you alluded to it in your intro, but actually the UK is absolutely massive at the moment. We've had a bumper quarter two with our hotel business, and the UK is really where it's at. I mean, you talk about it 12 months ago. 12 months ago, we had no idea what we'd be dealing with when it came to the Middle East. Um, and obviously that's having an undeniable effect on a number of things, including my own personal holiday, which was cancelled to Sri Lanka. Um, I think 12 months ago as well, we were all talking as if we'd see the US have a massive fall, as if that would be affected from the tourism numbers. But actually, both the US and the Caribbean are still quite interesting to people. There's a perception of uh of kind of going that way rather than the other way is a bit safer. And I think safety and trust are probably the key words of of the last few months that we need to be thinking about driving trends here.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Okay, and Andy, with your digital ears and eyes, what are you seeing from search?

SPEAKER_04 4:03

Um, I mean, it's been an interesting year for search, and um, I have written about this on our website and maybe even a trade press, but for the first time ever in 2026 in Q1 anyway, we saw a drop in search traffic overall, um, which was sort of distressing to see, I guess, but also maybe not too um unusual given that we've had such fantastic years in 23, 24, 25 after COVID. So um it was slightly unusual to see that. Um, going then into April and May, we've also seen continued decline year on year on searches, which is perhaps down to the way people are just finding holidays, where they're going. Uh, also, we've alluded to before just the power of the big three or four in the market when it comes to packages and even people like yourself who are very good at keeping their customers. So I think perhaps there's there's a number of different things going on here. Um, so whilst people are seemingly searching less, uh, where they're searching for is also changing as well. So um some of the data I managed to pull out um from the last five months um shows that generally, as I say, searches are down, with some exceptions. We've talked about the power of cruise, and we've got some really good episodes coming out about the cruise market generally. Cruise is very strong just across the board. But interestingly, again, you talked about UK and Katz talked about it there. Um, of all of the different categories I've been looking at over the last five months, there's only five five months out of probably about 60 or 70 different categories per month that actually saw an increase in searches. And in May 2026, uh we did actually see an uptick in UK holiday searches across the board. So um, whilst everything is going down, that particularly seems uh very relevant and very on the button where people are looking for more UK holidays um very, very recently. So um perhaps the weather's part of that, perhaps the cost is part of that, perhaps just uncertainty in travel uh full circle. But um very interesting to see that UK holidays are being searched for more um very recently.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

So, Kat, you know, we've all noticed this, and Andy's just spoke about it, but we weeks of sunshine, we only have to look outside and see the colour of our gardens to know that it's not rained for a while. Um, that means for the UK, it's packed beaches, you know, ice cream vans are along the promenade, busy campsite, beer gardens full, let alone we've also got a World Cup going on, so everyone loves to be at home for that. So, with your travel zoo hat on, does a heat wave like this in the UK generally slow the last minute overseas bookings? Does it really make the UK more appealing? Or is this all a big myth? And at the end of the day, what the consumer loves is to go abroad, get on a plane, and go sit by a pool somewhere hot in Europe?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

To answer that, I probably just need to explain a little bit about the Travel Zoom member, because the Travel Zoom member is somebody who is a very keen traveller, and they're travelling significantly more than kind of the average Joe. So we're seeing them take um sort of up to three international trips and two uh domestic trips a year. So I am not seeing it dampen their enthusiasm for travel. What I think we're seeing very specifically is, and I'm not gonna lie, clicks have been slightly more challenging on those very, very hot days, but we've seen some bizarre success for certain fields that you wouldn't necessarily think about. So I spoke to our uh publishing uh guru um and he explained to me that we've seen things like a December Caribbean cruise absolutely break records for us. So is there a possibility that once we get used to the heat, we want to keep it going, we want to start thinking about our winter sun even now? Um, and then sort of looking further into the market and sort of talking to sort of other marketing directors out there, Tui is seeing sort of an incredible gene, uh, you know, double-digit growth generally, and to places like the Balearics and the Canaries, which are obviously really, really hot destinations. Um, one thing we've seen, which which I really like, and it sort of slightly supports the UK trend, but I think it still feels like a holiday is the channel item that's really coming to the fore. So we've had some fabulous deals for Guernsey and Jersey that have been uh massive for us from a click and a booking point of view, but have also done really, really well in acquisitions and so in the kind of more CRM side of the things of the business. Six to one half a dozen to the other, but I don't think that the hot weather is doing anything to really dampen enthusiasm. Um, it's just possible that shoulder season will be even bigger. Uh there's probably some joke to be made about it no longer being shoulder season and it being more torso season, but genuinely, you know, there's so much more weight in that September and October booking now than I think it'll be across July and August for us.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

And Andy, obviously you've already alluded to that some search um has already showcased a jump in the UK. Do you think that if this heat wave continues, that trend will continue, or is it almost going to be maybe people start saying, well, as we get to the end of the summer, as Kat says, I want to keep this heat going and I want to go book this winter sun?

SPEAKER_04 9:06

Yeah, I mean, it again, that's it's very much uh a wait and see situation because I think a lot of it does come down to, as we say, World Cup and money and some fantastic deals that may or may not be out there. So I think there's a lot of things unknown. I mean, looking at the most recent data from Google on their Google Trends tool, um, searches for Spain hit an all-time high in May and have only come down a tiny bit um in uh June. Um, this is all comparatively, but seem to be up year on year, similarly um with um Tenerife and other places like that. And uh also we talked about UK like campsite searches again starting to show some increases, albeit completely tiny compared to the amount of searches done for Tenerife and Spain. So I would expect that will carry on. You know, people do, regardless of the 30-degree weather in UK, we'll have a history of knowing that's not reliable, and we could very easily get a very bad August or a very bad July that scuffers all of their plans. And if uh if there are some late market opportunities out there, then I expect people to be taking them. So I don't I don't think you're gonna see a massive, you're gonna have some had some headlines, but I don't think it's gonna be a wholesale shift. I think all the popular destinations are still gonna be popular, uh albeit perhaps not quite as searched as they were historically. Um just other things to talk about very quickly in terms of what's hot and what's not. Um, if you look at the countries that people have searched for holidays um this year, I've sort of sort of alluded to some um some that have been um very pertinent, but interesting that I mean maybe this is a question for both of you. Which sort of European-Asian country do you think has come out top in terms of growth of searches in 2026? Not somewhere that you would ever think of um historically, but the TV's definitely had an influence. Anyone want to guess on that one quickly?

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Well, which European and which Asian?

SPEAKER_04 10:59

Well, it's uh it's a it was a country featured on Race Across the World, so I'm giving you a bit of a clue there.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Oh my god, I don't watch that. I thought you were gonna go down the white lotus effect or I'm going it is it is it very, very much Eastern European?

SPEAKER_03 11:16

Yes. Very much Eastern European, almost border. I I I'm gonna go beyond Croatia, Montenegro, somewhere like that, or am I need to go even further? Am I talking somewhere like Afghanistan or Uzbekistan or yeah, you're very close.

SPEAKER_04 11:33

Armenia, Kyrgyzstan. Um it's the biggest growth in searches um in 2026, which is the I guess race across the world effect, albeit again, this is small base, so you know, big search increase um has a lot of impact. But we've also got places like Uzbekistan on the list, Montenegro's on the list, because obviously, again, the people uh watching that on TV, they want a cheaper alternative. So, yes, we're gonna see lots of Spanish traffic, um lots of Spanish holidays, but places like Albania were very popular last year. I expect some of those stars come through. On the flip side, um, the bottom of the list in 2026 perhaps comes as no surprise as Dubai, um, which is seeing a massive drop in searches because people, quite rightly, I guess, are being put off from um from thinking about that as a destination or considering it due to politics. So um there are trends going on. Some some places have definitely won, some people have definitely lost. Um but I expect um you know the typical holiday to Spain, Italy, Greece perhaps still to be coming through in the next few weeks.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

The other thing to talk about there is that TV effect. You kind of mentioned the race across the world, but um that I don't think anyone was really predicting what the Wuthering Heights movie would do for Yorkshire, what it did for our for our search during that period of time. So it's about being kind of clever and and capitalising on that. Um, I would imagine that the people at the Greek Tourism Board are rubbing their hands in glee for next week when the Odyssey comes out. Um, and the new House of Dragon is in North Wales, which I think will do do absolute amazing things for clicks. So there's lots in there as well, isn't there, around search that makes people possibly a younger audience, but makes people really want to go and see a place when they've seen it on the TV.

SPEAKER_04 13:17

Yeah, this this is the set-jetting trend, isn't it? It's been talked about many conferences over the last 12 months. Yeah. Um but just to sort of take that a little bit further, um, yeah, some of those places are very popular because of TV, but there's also, you know, think about world events and news. Um again, in my bottom sort of 10 or bottom five, even, uh, Cyprus and Turkey were very much at the bottom of searches. Um, whether that's down to heat, whether that's worries about um excessive heat. I think there's been that again another phrase at the conference is this cool cation thing. Uh again, I don't know if you're seeing that, but certainly Cyprus seems to have taken a hammering on the search in the last 12, 18 months uh alongside Turkey. Maybe people are now dodging the extreme heat. Are you seeing any of that your side?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

It's hard to say from a search point of view, because so much of our search volume is driven by the amazing deals we run. So Malta is up massively, but we've just had this incredible Malta deal that's just been, you know, had great dates, great price, all that kind of stuff. So our search operates a bit differently to the stuff that you're kind of digging into. So it's hard to say really, but I do think you know, something like that channel lines that I already mentioned is kind of giving you a holiday and still giving you possibly the temperatures that we're seeing feels like the right compromise for people as well.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

So you just mentioned about deals, Kat, and uh it's probably a great opportunity for us to now to dig a little bit deeper onto that. You know, we know that when the conflict started at the beginning of this year, we didn't see necessarily people stop traveling as they have done in the past with with the likes of COVID, but instead they were that that they all had all the power in the marketplace in particular because they were looking for better value to to kind of entice them to go away. So is value holidays becoming now an even bigger trend? And of that, what do you feel consumers are finding the best value in today? Is it is it those kind of five-star for four-star prices still wanting that? Or is it if a business can entice them with an amazing saving on a travel trip in 2027 or beyond? So, what's your take on that?

SPEAKER_01 15:23

But personally, I think it's always about value. It still is about that. Um I talk to quite a lot of our members. I'm lucky enough to meet Travel Zoo members on a on a very regular basis. And these are people with an awful lot of disposable income. But they also still want value for that. So you said five star at four-star prices. I think it's five star at three-star prices, to be honest with you. But one lady I met recently was sort of talking to me about being a member of TravelZoo, and she said, I probably spend between seven and eight thousand pounds just on myself on holidays a year, which is it's a lot of money. She said, But I still really enjoy your top 20. I want to see how much I can save on that. I spoke to our head of acquisition about this as well this week, and she said that the things that are driving clicks for her are swim up pools, upgrades, elements around that. So the price still feels affordable, but you just treat yourself to maybe that little extra Frisnov luxury that makes it feel special. So I think I think value is going away, even in the you know the current economic climate.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

And do you feel that what tour operators are trying to do then is include as many of that that value ads, those value ads up front to really make them different in the market, whether if that's a cruise line saying we have these amazing activities on board and they're all free to you, or it's a hotel saying all of our rooms are swim up or are all inclusive is premium. It's not just all inclusive, it's even better than all inclusive. Is that is that one of the tactics they're employing?

SPEAKER_01 16:50

As a marketer, yes, that's 100% the tactics. Um, kind of package it all up. It's got a little bit more difficult with all of the new CMA guidelines, uh, you know, and having to sort of like bring it all in and explain how much all of it costs, but those little extras are the things that lure people in, definitely. Um, and I think that touch of luxury with the value attached to it is is key. Another example I'll give you is um I think it's called the Bonina Express, I always get the name wrong, but a beautiful train in Switzerland, which has this perception of being something almost like the Orient Express, but in fact super, super affordable. Um we've run three deals in that area this year, and all of them have done incredibly well for us. And they're not, you know, 199 deals, but they have all of this extra thrown-in elements that feel special, and and that's what's important to people as well.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

We've mentioned cruise now a few times uh on our conversation, and one thing that I really wanted to explore with you, Kat, is just around how cruise continues to outperform. And you know, one of the things we know, and you know, obviously we work together, we know that cruise offers exceptional value. But from your perspective, how is it just continuing outperforming the other markets, particularly even when there is a crisis in a market? It just trends just keep going the same way and growth year over year as a market continues to be forecast.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Well, you've got to remember that there's a significant number more cruise ships this year and next year than there have been over previous years. So they just keep building beautiful ships with incredible facilities. And I think the thing about cruise is there was a perception that it was possibly a little bit outdated, and I firmly believe that it is now not uh outdated. In fact, something like 36% of all global cruises are under the age of 40. So, number one, there's growth in the fact that they've extended the audience massively. It's not just, you know, retirees going. Number two, they've extended the inventory available. Um, but number three, there's something for everyone. And that I think is key. You know, you've got your fairly standard kind of med cruises where you see Barcelona or Venice, but we're getting to far places, more exclusive places, more luxury places. And so that basically appeals to a much larger chance of the market. So that's probably a key thing in there. And you're right about cruise, it is to use a pun going swimmingly for us at Travel Zoo. Um, it can do no wrong, cruise. Um, it is content that keeps on performing. Um, but the thing that continually surprises me is the price points, it's performing at really, really high price points. Um with all that added value that we just talked about. So, you know, it's an all-inclusive six-star cruise will sell really, really easily for us. Um, I could probably give you a few examples of some deals we've run over the last few months that I mentioned earlier. I think the Caribbean cruise for December sold out at lead price really, really quickly. Uh, an expedition brand who's doing Christmas dates now, a 20 to 1 romance. So, you know, they're doing brilliantly on those things. Um, a luxury cruise line that I definitely can't mention did a sale with us and did half a million in revenue. I know this is a trade podcast, I'm being very careful with the names, but the point is that it's the gift that keeps on giving, and our customers absolutely love it. Um, so really it's an opportunity that I think will continue to grow. We recently ran a white paper with Oxford Economics around the opportunity in the small ship market, which I think is the exciting place to look. Like there's so much exciting small ship expedition cruising things coming out there. And what was so pleasing to see was that 58% of the Travel Zoo members were really interested in that in that market. So, going back to what I said about them taking three holidays a year, in fact, there's no reason why they can't take three cruises, one holiday, two cruises, you know, mix it up. But that's what we're kind of seeing at Travel Zoo at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

I I think there's also a prestige safety element around cruising that you can leave from the UK, you're not traveling abroad. Uh, we've seen X UK cruises do incredibly well. There's also cruises from gateways and ports that are deemed relatively safe to travel to, but you can still go further afield. So that's flying to Lisbon or flying out of Miami, uh cruising out of Miami. So there's lots of places like that where you can still get to further further afield destinations, but actually your starting point could be somewhere much more local. Um, Andy, what's your uh eyes and ears telling us again on cruise?

SPEAKER_04 21:29

I mean, um I'd echo everything you've both said there. I mean, cruise has just been a phenomenal success story post-COVID. Um, all of the searches I've done uh looked at um and talked about, you know, every year, what's the one thing propping up in the search market um online for travel and it's cruise. It just had a phenomenal growth until again this year we've seen a slight decline. But um, why is that? I think again, more people have taken cruises in the last few years, they'd be evangelical about it. I think the product is just phenomenal. There's so much choice. We've seen a Huge shift of people who've done a cruise and now want to go for river. River's been booming over the last 12-18 months. Um, and to your point about small ships, again, Kat, I think that's a really exciting area for diversification, again, more product opportunity, and also for people to find something just slightly less um, you know, mass market in some ways. You know, if you've got that uh the luxury part of where they want to go and where they can get to, plus also the overtourism of some of these ports is getting a bit much. Um, I think that's the a really big and exciting opportunity for the next few years ahead. Um, places also like the Caribbean, in in the context of the last few months, again seeing massive growth of searches because people perhaps don't want to go to the Middle East or perhaps they just want something a bit more secure. Um, that's been again of the big success story for 2026 is the Caribbean.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

Right, guys. So some quick fire questions for you now. I'm gonna put you on your on your toes. So, one-word answers, or if you have to, you can use a couple of words, but let's keep it simple. What's gonna be the hottest destination trend wise this summer, cat?

SPEAKER_01 23:08

It's it's Balearic's Canaries still. They are massively still still popular, um, hottest in temperature, possibly that as well.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

Okay, Andy.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

I'm going to go slightly left field and say again, all of the dupes. So you're looking at the places like Latvia instead of um Norway or Denmark, you're gonna look at the Stans instead of perhaps um some of the traditional places like Greece or Turkey, just because they offer better value, um something slightly different, and opportunity to come back and tell your mates that you've been somewhere no one else has been.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Okay, and what's gonna be the biggest surprise win of the summer? Is it gonna be an underdog there that's gonna come through and maybe steal a lot of bookings last minute?

SPEAKER_04 23:53

Well, for travel zoo, that would be Channel Islands. It's not really an underdog, but I go, I guess we've not really talked about Greece in the context of the travel um sector this summer. Yes, you talk about Spain, yes, talk about Italy. Of course, they're gonna be very popular. Greece obviously has the hidden EES uh cards to play, which I think will bring a lot of people through. So not an underdog per se, but something I think uh you'll see some big numbers for.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

Okay, and Kat, best value destination this summer.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Oh, we mentioned it already, but somewhere like Turkey, um, because there's just so much, so much inventory out there, and not enough people going there anymore, but it's still got lots to offer.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

Andy, do you agree?

SPEAKER_04 24:33

Uh I well, I mean, my search data would suggest not, but certainly I think there is some fantastic deals as you're gonna push people to, no doubt. Um, again, I think you know, the duke places I've talked about places like Albania and you know, Latvia and all those sorts of countries which um offer some fantastic value, I think that will see some great success there.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

Brilliant. Um, and before we bring this chapter to a close, uh, one trend nobody is talking about. And I'll start with you, Andy, so we can finish on cat. A trend that nobody's talking about.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

Trend that no one is talking about. I mean, we've covered them all here, so I guess I'm gonna go back to my sort of race across the world, the set jetting things, because I think I think they get forgotten about in the mix of it's gonna be a late market and everybody wants to go to Spain. I think um those destinations will still come through strong. So that's my that's my tip.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

Okay, Kat?

SPEAKER_01 25:22

I quite like his. Um, but actually, I think the World Cup Halo effect, uh, I it's not that no one's talking about it because they probably are, but uh the Cape Verde sensation, if they can capitalize on that, which is trickier for them with their infrastructure, but if they can, they'll be able to do what Morocco and Croatia did in previous World Cups. And I think that's a real opportunity that we should talk about.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna throw one in here. I think what we might see, which we we talked about staycations. I think you might get a bit of road tripping in the UK. I would love to see what the stats are post to summer on how many people think have taken caravans out or gone on the road and gone to more remote locations. I explored Wales or Scotland because the temperatures up there are actually a little bit cooler if you go up Scotland. West coast of Scotland, you've got to still fight the midges. But you know, there's so much land grab up there, and prices are relatively good value. So, my kind of secret trend, which I'd love to see the stats and afters, I think there'll be a lot of people hitting to the road, not breaking up their holiday, but just doing something different. Um, so someone else was telling me they were doing it the other day, and I thought actually this could be something that could cotton on. So let's see.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

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SPEAKER_03 26:43

Okay, well, you are not exempt of this, Kat, because you have to do this as a guest on our podcast. It's now time for Talking Travel or Talking Twaddle, and I'm gonna hand you over to Andy.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

Oh dear. Thank you very much, James. This is the contentious part of the podcast. So I hope you're ready, Kat. I'm gonna try and be kind, but the questions we have for uh talking travel or twaddle today are all around influence and uh how people are buying or searching for holidays. So I have five questions. Um, if it's travel, it's true. If it's twaddle, it's false. So I'm gonna read out a few statements. What we need from you is a travel or a twaddle. The first question on average, UK travelers are spending five percent more on holidays compared to a year ago, according to recent research. Five percent more year on year. Is that travel or twaddle?

SPEAKER_00 27:36

Probably the cost of inflation at the moment, twaddle.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

Twaddle is correct because the number reported is actually 12%, not five percent. So well done, congratulations. Instagram and TikTok have the strongest influence on where people decide to travel. Is that twaddle or is that travel?

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Can you name a demographic? That'll make it far easier.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

Yeah, I've got this is a very generic statement.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

If it's generic depends if it's if it's if it's generic completely, it's twaddle. If it's under 35s, it's travel.

SPEAKER_04 28:15

Uh and we're going for the generic answer, which was twaddle, so you're correct, that's two from two. Um depending on the research, again, it's either friends or family or search engines. Um, but but it very much does depend on the audience. You are correct. Number three, flexible booking and cancellation are the holiday extras UK travellers are most willing to pay for compared to things like airport parking, e-tickets, or other things. Is that travel or is that quadal? Quadle. No, it is actually travel. That's cancellations are supposedly the things people value the most. Uh so two from three, not bad. Number four, 40% of UK travelers now say they use AI to help them plan their next holiday. And is that travel or is that twaddle? 40% of UK customers.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

If only I could remember your talk at ABTA Andy when I was not listening.

SPEAKER_04 29:09

Um you and everyone else.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

40% is very high given the numbers. I would say twaddle.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

The answer is travel. 40% of UK travelers say say 40%.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

Yes. So if you're not thinking about your AI strategy or know someone that might be able to help, then think so. Think about that. Last question you're two from four. This could be a big turning point for your score on the school board. If we get a very busy summer in Europe, overtourism will become a genuine problem. According to research by Statista in November 2025, 20% of travelers would be put off a destination if they heard about protests there. Now, is that travel or twaddle? 20% of travellers would be put off if they heard of over-tourism protests.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Complete guess, travel.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

Unfortunately, it is twaddle because the number is 50%.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

So that many. I would have preferred your question about like whether Australia was bigger than the moon or something. That would have been far easier to guess at.

SPEAKER_04 30:17

Unfortunately, uh, that wasn't the case today. Perhaps you can come back and try again. But two out of five sits you on a very prestigious plateau with me and James. Okay. So um you've you've got some great company down at the bottom. It's good fun down here. You don't want to be at the top anyway.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

No, no one has.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

Andy, I'm worried about how big Will's head's gonna get after all this.

SPEAKER_04 30:40

This is gonna be something to dine out by on for Will. But um, thank you very much for talking travel or twaddle cat Jordan. That was fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Thank you. Well, that's all that uh we have time for this episode. Uh, but one thing remains clear travel continues to be the lifeblood of the consumer here in the UK and one of the biggest priorities. Consumers may be booking differently, searching differently, and looking harder for value, but the appetite to explore the world still remains as strong as ever. A huge thank you to the wonderful Kat Jordan from Travel Zoo for joining us today and sharing some fantastic consumer insights. Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast and connect with us on LinkedIn at Let's Talk Travel or on YouTube at Let's Talk Travel Podcast. Thank you for listening. Bye bye.