The pressure to take a flawless vacation is giving way to a looser, more personal idea of a good trip. Hilton’s 2027 Trends Report, based on a Morning Consult survey of over 14,000 travelers in 14 countries, describes people who want flexibility, trusted guidance, room to grow, time to recover and trips that fit a crowded calendar.
Hilton: The New Mindset
Titled The Great Rebalance, the report finds that 54 percent feel pressure to get a trip exactly right, and Hilton says travelers are answering with a standard it labels “ish,” as in, “perfect-ish” or “solo-ish”.
Hilton’s top executive reads the findings the same way. “We’re seeing that travelers are less interested in someone else’s definition of perfection and more focused on planning travel on their own terms,” said Chris Nassetta, President and CEO of Hilton, in a press statement. Independence does not always mean isolation, though. Some 31 percent of travelers have gone solo only to join friends or family at the destination, and Motto by Hilton says that in the last 12 months, most of its reservations worldwide came from solo guests.
Going their own way does not mean planning alone. Hotel staff are a trusted planning resource for 70 percent of travelers, and half say they weigh advice more heavily from people with loyalty status. Status also stirs some envy: 29 percent admit envying friends who rank higher in a loyalty program.
Once they have the advice, travelers want the trip to do more than provide a break. Hilton reports that 42 percent say travel helped them find new interests, and Gen Z respondents are almost twice as likely as Baby Boomers to hope to come back with a new pastime. At Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort in Hawaii, for example, the Kilohana Cultural Resource Center offers ukulele lessons, tours and craft workshops rooted in Hawaiian history and traditions. More than 6,000 travelers visited in 2026.
Growth and rest are not opposites in the data. Sixty-five percent of travelers seek experiences that quiet the body and settle the nervous system, and 79 percent call fresh air and time outdoors essential to unwinding on a trip. At Conrad Orlando, for one, Hilton says the number of outdoor bath treatments at its Water Garden, a hydrothermal experience, is up 60 percent year over year.
Time is the final constraint, and how travelers handle it depends on where they live. In the U.S., 88 percent of travelers call anything under 3-4 days a short trip. Saudi Arabia and Germany are the markets most likely to stretch the term to 5-6 days or longer, at 29 percent and 26 percent respectively.
Why This Matters:
For travel advisors, the findings suggest an opening. Clients who want to plan without a template still lean on trusted people, which gives advisors a reason to position themselves as the personal, human option. Pitching a short stay built around a skill, a nature experience or a specific cultural activity and asking each client how they define a short trip could help advisors match offers to what travelers say they value.
For more information, visit hilton.com.
