According to the U.S. Travel Association’s Spring 2026 forecast, domestic travel accounts for 87 percent of total U.S. travel spending, as travelers increasingly favor shorter itineraries and staying closer to home.
“Domestic travel isn’t just a fallback—it’s where we’re seeing real momentum,” said Jaclyn Leibl-Cote, President and CEO of Collette, in a media statement. “Travelers are actively looking to explore their own backyard in a deeper, more meaningful way, and advisors are in a powerful position to guide them toward those experiences.”
Collette notes that staying closer to home means “travelers can avoid the complexities of international planning while still experiencing something new, making it easier for advisors to close the sale and deliver value.”
Collette is offering new and enhanced tours for your clients to explore their own backyard, including the 8-day The American Story, which takes participants from Boston to the Gateway of Ellis Island. Highlights include walking along Boston’s historic Freedom Trail; visiting NYC’s Tenement Museum; a food tour in NYC’s Lower East Side; sightseeing at the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island; touring Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary—America’s First Penitentiary; seeing the Liberty Bell up-close; and visiting the Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT.
The tour operator has also enhanced its 10-day Spirit of the Southwest, which explores the American Southwest with visits to Santa Fe and its historic plaza, the Bandelier National Monument, home to cliff dwellings and village ruins from Ancestral Puebloans, and the mesa-top Acoma Pueblo, continuously inhabited for nearly 1,000 years. Also included is a scenic outdoor BBQ under desert skies and stays in Sedona and Scottsdale.
“Travel advisors have a unique opportunity right now to reframe how clients think about domestic travel,” Leibl-Cote added. “This is about discovering just how much there is to experience as we continue to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.”
