While lazy tourists telling tall tales is nothing new, what Booking.com described in its 2024 travel predictions as the “anonymity of travel” is seemingly encouraging 4 in 10 people to turn into Walter Mitty-types while on holiday.
“In 2024, travelers will feel more alive by creating their very own epic alter egos on vacation, with more than a third (37%) making up stories about their real life to people they meet on their travels,” according to the Dutch-based online travel agency.
Not only are next year’s travellers likely to be peddling fictional autobiographies, there’s a 1 in 2 chance they will be doing so while plodding through itineraries set out for them by artificial intelligence. Around half of the 28,000 people surveyed by Booking.com said they would turn to AI to do their travel planning for them.
“Fueling the idea that people take on different personas when traveling to feel more alive, over two thirds (68%) feel they are the best version of themselves on vacation, able to shed inhibitions and embrace new aspects of their personalities,” Booking.com said, outlining its 2024 travel predictions.
And tourists are not only increasingly inclined to fabulism: a perceived need “to live their finest lives with confidence” means almost half are willing to splash out on a holiday rental car they cannot afford – a profligacy Booking.com links to efforts to “feel ‘main character energy’ on their travels” and to be “empowered to be the stars of their own life.”
