Top Travel Destinations for Summer Trends Backed by Data

Welcome to Travel Buddy

Where is everyone actually going this summer, and how do we know? In this episode, Rachel Satow and Ian Andersen break down the data behind 2026’s hottest travel destinations. We look at what Switchfly booking data, Condé Nast, Fora, and Amex Travel all agree on, why Southern Europe is seeing a dip, how AI is (and isn’t) changing the way people plan trips, and what all of this means for loyalty and rewards program managers heading into peak travel season. 

Transcript

Welcome to Travel Buddy, presented by Switchfly. In this podcast, we talk about all things travel, rewards, and loyalty. Let’s get to it.

[00:00:09] Brandon Giella: Where we were, I found with her friend. vacationing. Everybody is currently planning or has planned their summer travel. I know Ian’s got some coming up. We might talk about. So how do these trendy places that people are traveling and putting on their calendars, how do they get there? There’s a lot of, uh, you know, if you Google Where should I go this summer? Or where are people going this summer? Especially for you loyalty and program managers out there who are designing some of these programs for travelers. are people going? How do you know? And so there’s lots of publications out there. There’s Conde Nas, there’s fora, there’s of course Switch Fly data that you guys present some really amazing stuff on your. Website about, but how does it get there and what’s real? Is it just trendy for trendy’s sake or is it really where actually people are traveling? So Rachel, I’ll turn it over to you real quick. Um, what are some trends you’re noticing and how does that data get there? What do you guys look at when you’re thinking about what is the popular destination for summer travel?

[00:01:10] Rachel Satow: No, that’s a great question. Um, so obviously we have switch fly data that we take a look at. Um, and then we, like everyone else when planning our own travel, take a look at other publications con and asked for a, um, Amex put out a another top. Destinations report as well. Um, and I think, you know, specifically for this conversation, we took a look at what is at the junction of all of them. Um, like what is, what is the overlap of these? And it’s important to note that like for a, has their top destinations based off of their booking data switch, Y has. Our booking data, Conde Nast uses, you know, reviews and surveys that help kind of gather the top destinations of where people are going. Um, so all of these different. Publications and different booking platforms have different sources of data. And the reason we took the approach to kind of take a look at all of them is because we wanted to boil down, okay, where are people really going? Where across all of these different sources, all of this different booking data. Where are people really going? Um, so for 2026, uh, we saw a couple of intersections between all of these publications. And the, uh, the, the, the big theme is that people are moving primarily from cities into secondary or regional exploration. Um, this is showing up as recommendations across those publications and booking data, um, in places like Panama. Morocco or lesser known, Japan was a popular one. Um, and some of the other mountain destinations were, were really overlapping between Amex, Conde Nast Switch flight data and fora. Um, and what this means when I take a look at it is that people are really focusing on immersion and experiences that feel personal and lesser. So like, I want to go. Look at the Eiffel Tower, which don’t get me wrong, Paris is wonderful. You love Paris. In the, in the infamous words of Audrey Hepburn, Paris is always a good idea.

[00:03:16] Brandon Giella: I have a

[00:03:16] Rachel Satow: for,

[00:03:17] Brandon Giella: that. Yes, love

[00:03:20] Rachel Satow: so really though what we’re seeing for summer of 2026 is that there’s a focus on this immersion and experiences that feel really personal, um, or unique, that no one else is going to be able to experience them. Um, so a lot of that off the beaten path and nature destinations being incorporated as well, like. The Himalayas, Costa Rica, Patagonia, things that are a little bit more outside of the norm are, are coming into play a lot here. Uh, one of the other things that is pretty unique for this year is that it is America two 50. And, um, regardless of, of what’s going on, there is still a pretty heavy uptick in travel around July 4th, especially in America. And. We’re seeing a lot of summer travel specifically to historic cities, so Philly, DC, Boston, um, the historic triangle as it’s referred to in Virginia, which is Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, um, really focusing on. July. Um, and one of the things that I thought was fascinating was Hotel Planner actually reported that there’s a 108% increase in hotel bookings for July 4th weekend over last year, which shows that despite, you know, what may, may or may not be going on in the world, um, people are, are still wanting to travel to celebrate this, um, and, and take advantage of some of the events that are going on.

[00:04:51] Brandon Giella: If you know what that means is fewer people are gonna be traveling to Paris because they’re gonna be going to Philly.

[00:04:57] Rachel Satow: must be a great I is Paris becoming an off the beam path This.

[00:05:02] Ian Andersen: So something when I was kind of poking around looking at some of the data that that. Is showing up is exactly that, that, um, international airfare out of the US right now is down 10%, uh, year over year. It, uh, and a lot of Southern Europe, travel destinations are seeing a decrease as well, uh, due to. A whole host of factors, but like, things like, um, the, the cool occasions, uh, right to people don’t necessarily want to go to somewhere hot. so you see northern tra, Northern Europe getting a little bit of an uptick, but the, the sort of the. Historically popular Southern European destinations aren’t as, uh, aren’t as popular this year, at least not so far. Um, I think, there’s, there’s a few kind of main reasons. Uh. The, the, you know, oil prices are obviously higher at the moment than they have been, uh, over the last few years. Um, there’s a lot of uncertainty around that. Uh, a lot of political certainty, uncertainty in general. I think that’s, that’s driving some of this as well as, uh, just locally in places like Spain and Italy. There, uh, there are some. Internal pressures against, uh, foreign tourism. Right. Um, there’s been some laws passed in Spain around, uh, who can and cannot, Use their home for like Airbnb purposes and, and things like that to really try to decrease some of the tourism in some areas. and I think that’s kind of causing a lot of people to maybe, uh, drift away from some of those more, uh, popular, historically popular spots, um, to some of the places that, like Rachel was mentioning. but uh, yeah, just sort of um. Southern Europe is kind of less popular this year, at least so far than it has been historically. and I think, you know, that might be a trend that continues at least for, this year and maybe even going in the next couple of years depending on kind of how a lot of different factors shake out.

[00:07:30] Brandon Giella: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think, uh, a lot of things that driving some of these trends, but I wonder if, you know, maybe anecdotally, um, Is driving some of these trends because maybe the kids these days would call it travel maxing. You know, you’re looking for something unique and like, Hey, I’m doing this thing that’s off the beaten path. But also like AI and some of these other tools are probably giving more creative ideas that people haven’t considered before. And also like, well, if I’ve got a travel guide in my pocket. Then I, maybe I don’t need to stick to the most, you know, travel destinations around the world. I can actually I can find my own way, you know, I can get a translator on my phone or whatever if I get stuck and, you know, just kind of unlocking some of these, these ideas for folks for, for, traveling.

[00:08:19] Rachel Satow: Yeah, I mean, to your point regarding, you know, using other sources like ai, et cetera, to help plan. Trips. One word of caution I would still put out for Travelers is that. Google, LLMs, et cetera, they, it doesn’t matter what your query is, they are still going to surface the thing that has the highest rankings because that’s where information is being pulled from. It’s pulling from people who are optimized the most to two rank in those things. So in reality, you may be trying to find something that’s super off the beaten path, but at the end of the day, it’s still going to serve you. What is ranking the highest? Um, and I know you got into this conversation on our last episode with Carrie regarding AI and travel and, and spontaneity in particular. And, um, so I would just as a word of caution, if you are really looking for the off the beaten path, AI is a good resource to help plan things, but, um, make sure you’re still leaving some wiggle room to actually experience the destination.

[00:09:26] Brandon Giella: Right. That’s right. is always a good idea,

[00:09:29] Ian Andersen: Fair.

[00:09:30] Rachel Satow: Paris is always a good idea.

[00:09:33] Ian Andersen: That’s, that’s a great point. I think. Um, so, so 20 plus years ago, 25, 30 years ago, we started seeing this dramatic reduction in travel agent industry, right? Uh, as the internet became more and more common to use, uh. You know, there was a pretty much direct correlation between the sort of decline in number of travel agents and, uh, the increase in, uh, being able to do much of that yourself right through, through, uh, Google and, and price line and Switch fly and all the other, uh, travel booking platforms. Um. I think ai, what AI is going to help do is be able to increase the personalized nature of travel agents, but self-serving. Right. We, uh, you’re totally right, Rachel. Like, um, anything on the internet, it’s, it’s really hard to. Get to the bottom of like, whatever topic you’re searching in this case, like the least or, or lesser traveled destinations just because there’s less information about it. Right. Um, so it’s a little self-defeating. but with ai, uh, and I’m, I’m sure, you know, we do, we do this internally with Switch fly as far as using AI to, uh. Provide recommendations to people based on, personalized interests and things like that. Um, I’m sure those tools are just gonna get more and more, uh, complex and be able to, to weed out a lot of that, uh, kind of influencer led, um. You know, stuff that ranks really highly just because they’re professionals who do this daily and, and know how, uh, how to do that. Um, so I, do have hope that AI will be able to of provide people a little bit more personalized, um, experiences and, and to the point of like find lesser travel destinations. You know, um, you see that a lot with. kind of, any kind of search, uh. Just in general, if you’re, you’re doing a, a, a search or for travel right now, there are a lot of places, as the internet has gotten more ubiquitous and AI’s taking over, there are a lot of places that, you know, probably 10 years ago you weren’t necessarily hearing about. but because of things like Instagram and, and Twitter and, or sorry, X and all the others,

[00:12:30] Brandon Giella: Yeah,

[00:12:30] Ian Andersen: you know, somewhere out of the way a, a. You know, bed and breakfast that’s off the beaten path is able to kind of their name and face out there, uh, maybe in ways they weren’t able to before. Um, you know, so, so i, I think we’ll, we’ll still see that, continue and, and hopefully, democratize the, uh, the travel experience a little bit more.

[00:13:00] Brandon Giella: that’s right. That’s right. I could see the argument that. You know, ai, this is the last thing I’ll say. We don’t have to talk about AI the whole time, but, uh, is that, you know, it, it makes a normal distribution of data. So if you’ve got a ton of data, it’s always gonna go for the most average thing because it’s just statistically guessing the next most likely word. but the edge that it would have is that it could know a lot of personal context about you. And so if I were to use Claude in a particular way to search for travel, it knows. I’ve been talking to it for two years. You know, it’s got all this memory associated with me, so it could maybe suggest some things that might be a little unusual that I wouldn’t think of myself.

[00:13:37] Ian Andersen: Yeah. And as, as people get more functionally literate with it, you know, you can develop your own, projects and GPTs and, and whatever, um, and you can guide it to focus on more of those, those, uh, bottom of the bell curve. Um. Data points. So, uh, I definitely think there’s, there’s some pretty cool stuff coming as far as like travel related recommendation and things. I will say one, one more thing, um, before we move on to the next point of. There’s a reason. Places like Southern France and The Bahamas and you know, Tokyo and, you know, certain places are most highest traveled to locations. Uh, always. And it’s because they’re really nice, you know, and they have a lot of really nice stuff for. wanting to go, uh, go adventure, to go see something. So

[00:14:47] Brandon Giella: something for

[00:14:47] Ian Andersen: don’t count out like common commonly visited places. Like there’s a reason they’re commonly visited. Right. Um, I think that can get a little, get, and this is totally. Like personal anecdotal of, uh, just like personal preference. I get kind of annoyed at times of like, I get those videos that pop up that are like, oh, this little hidden whatever out of the way. I am like, well, I’m going to, ’cause I wanna look at the coliseum. Like, I’m not, I’m not going for, like, I can find a nice little bed and breakfast that nobody goes to within an hour of my house. You know, like, I’m sure it’s beautiful, I’m sure it’s fun, but when I’m vacationing I kinda want the like big cool stuff that makes my life, you know,

[00:15:38] Brandon Giella: That’s

[00:15:39] Ian Andersen: and is fun to do. So, you know, don’t always, you don’t always have to to go off the beaten path.

[00:15:47] Rachel Satow: Yeah, I.

[00:15:48] Brandon Giella: economists maximizing

[00:15:50] Ian Andersen: Yeah,

[00:15:51] Brandon Giella: value that we have in our tiny little trips.

[00:15:53] Ian Andersen: exactly.

[00:15:54] Rachel Satow: Yeah, Well, I mean, Ian, you bring up a really good point about like why are the hotspots that are on the fora, Conde Nast Amex lists, why are they there? Um, outside of like booking data and everything, the things that we see. No matter the year, no matter what’s going on, is that, to your point, Southern Europe, Japan, Northern Europe, et cetera, these, these hubs of travel are still there and they’re still, you know, taking a nice chunk of the share of, of, of travel for the next, you know, for summer in particular. But, um, it’s. Not just because there are people like you and me who want to go like, um, go see history and, and like the most accessible history that exists for us. Um, but it also comes into play. They, they’re on the hotspot list because of. Things like currency exchanges are simpler or flight accessibility or, um, you know, social media. We, we can get back to the influencer comment you made earlier, Brandon, but like, or social media amplification is like when you think of a city, we’ll use Rome because you’re going to, to Italy. Um, when you use the idea of like Rome, um, there, you know, you’re going to be able to find a reliable flight there. There’s, it’s got the infrastructure in place to be able to support. Travel in and out of the city, but also to support some of that tourism that exists. And there is that, like, this is a, a horrible way to say it, but like the underbelly of it where. You are seeing a rise in social media influencers at the hotspots telling you the secret things that exist around that area. So like I think there’s still a level of, of encouraging an off the beaten path experience. Even if you’re going to a hub, because it, it just, that’s the theme that everybody is, is leaning into in order to create a personalized experience for their, for their trip. Um, but I think there’s a lot of other factors that exist, like just simply accessibility to a point. Uh. When you think about the idea of an international traveler, going to another country that speaks a different language is an intimidating factor, and if they can rely on the fact that they can get in and out of the city very simply without needing to take additional transport somewhere else. That makes these, these syn, these, uh, locations a little bit more attractive for them to stay on the hot list. Um, and then those who are looking for something a little bit more intimate can always, you know, be a little courageous and take the train further out, or take rent a car. I know, Ian, you’re doing that, so like there’s still that opportunity for. For still seeing the, uh, the, the more personalized experience of, of, you know, aroma Japan, of Paris or whatever. Um, and that’s why we’re still seeing them on the hot list alongside some of these other newer, lesser traveled places.

[00:19:02] Ian Andersen: I think there’s, there’s like that’s a excellent point of like. Um, not only are these places popular because they’re beautiful and historic and whatever, they’ve just been refined over generations of tourism to be optimized for people to go to, you know, the language and currency thing. A great example, if I’m going to Europe, I know I’m gonna need euros and that’s it, right? Like that’s, I can go to any bank around here and get a, a stack of euros and be fine. Um. I know, you know, I know in Rome, uh, I will have, there will be enough English language support for me to get around and do what I need to do, you know, with my like 10 word vocabulary in, in Italian. Um. that just the, the optimization of these places over decades, if not centuries of catering to tourists, uh, are when, when I mentioned earlier that, uh, that international travel is down. Um, and, and Southern or Southern European, uh, travel bookings are down this year. They’re still at, near the top of the overall rankings. Right. It’s just, um, year over year down several percent that, uh, also, I guess like one, one other point is. Don’t feel pressured, right. To do the, off the but beaten path. If, if that’s not what you want. I’m, I’m, I’m not a hiker, I’m not, you know, I don’t mountain bike. I’m not, don’t want to go find, swim out to some lost cave that only like 10 people. Not, I wanna sit on the beach with my, my cocktail and enjoy the sun and hang out with my wife like. Uh, know who you are as a traveler. Now, you know, I will gladly take a day trip on some small train to go see something cool and out of the way. But, uh, remember, some of that stuff can also be very hard to get to. And if you’re going for a week or if you got certain things you want to do, you gotta take that. Keep that in mind too. So.

[00:21:24] Brandon Giella: Right? We’ve all seen those videos on Instagram of the woman in the sundress, and she’s like, I found this cute little area that nobody else knows about three hours outside of this central city. And so I took a ferry and then a train, and then we got in a canoe and battle and it’s like, okay lady,

[00:21:39] Ian Andersen: Right. Yeah. No,

[00:21:41] Brandon Giella: That ain’t happening, you

[00:21:41] Ian Andersen: no, exactly. Exactly. I’m going on vacation to relax, you know, like I don’t want to work in any way. Yeah.

[00:21:51] Brandon Giella: okay. So we’ve mentioned a lot of different trends, uh, but one I wanted to to to get your, your feedback on here, and Rachel, maybe I’ll turn it over to you, is, um, I wonder what you think about if, uh, how folks can work nowadays if that’s extending or changing the way that people are traveling. So, for example, if you’ve got wifi for a lot of knowledge workers out there, they could go spend two or three weeks somewhere because. do, you know, half of it a vacation, half of it working, and so they can, you know, kind of get more off the beaten path or change the way that they would travel otherwise, despite some of the things that we were saying. But I’m curious if that, uh, has a, a part to play in some of the data that you’re seeing.

[00:22:31] Rachel Satow: I want to say yes. Dot, dot do. Um, the, the short of the long is yes, it the ability to work and extend it. You know, if you are going for a work trip. Because you work internationally, whatever it might be like, you need to go meet with some clients and then extend, um, for a little while. That is definitely a plus with the way that, you know, the, the workforce infrastructure exists today. Um, because we have so many. So many points of accessibility. Like I can bring my laptop along if I happen to be going to, I don’t know. We have a couple of, of coworkers going to Toronto over the next couple of weeks. Let’s say one of them wanted to stay for the weekend after the work trip is finished and explore a little bit more. They have that capability because they have all of the things that they’re, they need to do in order to. To, to do the job while they’re, they’re traveling for work and if they needed to extend it, they had the ability to work there because, you know, most places, most being, you know, italicized in, in, in that way have, um, access to wifi or at minimum you could hotspot in or something along those lines to, uh, to tap in without using all of your PTO I would say that. Remote work. Um, overall also gives the ability to work from different places so long as your company allows for it. Um, there’s definitely an uptick in individuals who are taking on this nomadic lifestyle where they have a job that supports the, the ability to work from anywhere and you see them go work. A month in Peru or you know, they’re traveling all over the United States from their van because what they do allows them to do that. Um, so I would, I would say yes, it is definitely changing the way people are traveling and some of the things that they’re able to do. I don’t know that the ability to work remote is directly affecting. These like hotspot lists, you know, where, where are people going in 2026? In, in my opinion, at least, simply because it really is focusing on like the summer travel upticks and it, the business traveler and bleisure overall as it’s referred to, is more of a consistent. Thing. It’s more, it’s, it’s less about traveling when others are traveling and when there’s peak travel, travel, uh, timeframes like summer, and it’s more about the ability to take your every day on the road. Um, so, so we see it kind of take on that consistency throughout the year rather than, you know, contribute to any of these, these, you know, hot lists that we’re talking about.

[00:25:31] Brandon Giella: Yeah. Fair. That makes sense. That makes sense. One, one more piece of data, uh, or source of data, if you will, uh, comes from switch flies, head of sales, who happens to be a travel agent, travel advisor. Um, can you talk about what, uh, some actual bookings and, and data that she has on the ground talking to people and planning their trips and how that might, uh, play into this as well. And then we’ll bring it home. Talk, talk about, uh, travel loyalty program managers after that

[00:26:01] Rachel Satow: Yeah, absolutely. So unfortunately Ashley wasn’t able to join us today. She was really excited, but she’s feeling unwell. Um, but she did leave us with a couple of notes, uh, just in her experience. Um, she is a travel advisor on the side. Um, and some of the things that she’s seeing overall is, is the. People are trying to book more unique excursions, um, and boutique hotels and really lean into that Instagramable feel. Um, which I have a thought on after, after we get done with this thread. Um, and then one of the things that she’s really noticing and, and you know. From a, uh, just general theme is trying to be cognizant of some of these recommendations on these lists. So if you think about some of the cities that the Conde Nast list, the for travel list, et cetera, are promoting, they. May not have the infrastructure of Rome Paris. And when you think about an experience and, and how, how so many people inc, including influencers, but like so many different sources are pushing this idea of off the beaten path. Um. Just be prepared for if you do want to experience that, that the places you go may not have the infrastructure you expect based on other hotspots that you’ve been to.

[00:27:26] Brandon Giella: is

[00:27:26] Rachel Satow: oh yeah.

[00:27:27] Brandon Giella: to say like, uh, let’s say I’ve had this experience, we talked about it before on the show where it’s 2:00 AM and your three-year-old gets sick and you gotta go to a doctor or a hospital or something like that. If you’re way out there, you may not have that luxury. Is that, is this something kind of what she’s talking about?

[00:27:44] Rachel Satow: Yeah. So that, and just being cognizant of every time you travel, you are going to someone else’s home. And that’s something that we have, we’ve talked about in the past. Um, just being cognizant of that. And some people live in a New York City, a Rome, a Tokyo, places where there’s already hundreds of thousands, millions of people that exist and an uptick of travelers to those areas. May not be noticed as much. Um, it’s funny, one of the things that she and I was talking about, we, we were talking about is, um, this idea that influencers, they are leading the data. They are as they are going and exploring certain places and putting it out there on social media and pushing this idea of off the beaten path where I found this cute little cafe, three out three hours outside of the city and needed to take. A gondola train and a something else to get there. Um, that little cafe may not be ready to service thousands of people that may want to experience the same thing the influencer is, is experiencing. So from, from the perspective that she and I were talking about, it’s more just about being cognizant that not all places have the same. Tourism infrastructure readily available and. Sometimes places are recommended based on booking data reviews, influencers, et cetera, that are just simply not prepared to take on that uplift in tourism and just being conscientious of that. Um. As you are traveling. So that was a, that was a big takeaway, um, from some of our conversations regarding this topic from her. All that to be said, she did also leave us with a smart alternative destination, um, for some of the, the, um, the hotspots that we’re seeing. So one of the things that she mentioned was if you are looking to do something off the beaten path, that can still. Hold a level of infrastructure from a tourism perspective. She’s recommending Albania for the Mediterranean coast instead of Italy. Um, she’s, she mentioned that it’s, it’s affordable. The accommodations are, are very good and it has a beautiful coastline. So I think when you combine the two thoughts that I just rambled on about, um. At least be cognizant if you are going to go off the beaten path, ensuring that you’re doing so respectfully and make sure that you’re doing so, um, knowing that if you happen to be going somewhere that doesn’t have the, the tourist infrastructure to be just cognizant and, and, uh, respectful of that. So yeah.

[00:30:37] Brandon Giella: I, I’ve heard the same about Croatia, that,

[00:30:39] Ian Andersen: Yeah.

[00:30:40] Rachel Satow: yes.

[00:30:42] Brandon Giella: just

[00:30:42] Rachel Satow: That’s actually.

[00:30:43] Brandon Giella: unquote, you know,

[00:30:45] Ian Andersen: yeah, Croatia is on our short list too ’cause we’re a fans and they’ve filmed a lot of this stuff there.

[00:30:53] Brandon Giella: that’s

[00:30:55] Ian Andersen: To Rachel’s to like, additional point on what Rachel was saying is, uh, something else to think about is. always remember that influencers are paid. not doing this for the love of the game, right? It’s there, there is an incentive there. So, uh, just to, to kind of add on, like make sure you’re like. Cross-checking certain things, right? Don’t necessarily take, uh, any one source for granted. That’s probably the greatest thing the internet has given us, right, is, is being able to, uh, to get multiple sources of information. And if you can only find this one influencer talking about this thing, you know, it might be legit. And it also might be that that little b and b in the middle of nowhere that is. Uh, is giving them some money to, to say those things, you know, and may

[00:31:55] Rachel Satow: Yeah.

[00:31:56] Brandon Giella: Yeah.

[00:31:56] Ian Andersen: so remember that any kind of influencer led stuff is they’re doing it, um, for their own self interested purposes, uh, and not necessarily, uh, yours. So, so crosscheck that stuff and then, um, the point of, uh, of the amenities. Available. Um, you know, I’ve been on every continent except Antarctica, that, uh, the biggest thing I’ve learned is just how easy we have it in the us, like how convenient everything is. Just in general, whether it’s, know, br Brandon’s point of like, crap, I need to go to er at two in the morning, or, um, you know, I’m having trouble with my credit card, or, you know, whatever. we have it so incredibly convenient compared to basically anywhere else in the world. Uh, so just keep that in mind. Keep um, Plans in mind, you know, um, I’ve been in the military for 18 years, so that’s all sort of second nature to have like backup plans in case, like I was showing Rachel my nerdy spreadsheet for our trip coming up and how, you know, I have this hotel book for here and this here, but I also have like, if this falls through, we’re gonna go. Here and, you know, um, so always just have, have backup plans, uh, in case carry cash. Carry it in an inconspicuous place, right? Like there’s, there’s just some basic travel things you should do anywhere. But definitely if go in internationally.

[00:33:52] Brandon Giella: Amen.

[00:33:53] Rachel Satow: a contingency plan.

[00:33:55] Brandon Giella: That’s right. That’s right.

[00:33:56] Rachel Satow: Yeah. But, but yeah. To Ian’s point, regarding. Influencers. I know internally we were talking about this, um, and whether or not social media and influencers are, are leading the data or if they’re reflecting it. Um, and when you think about some of the, the lists that we pulled together, um, to, to really take a look at some of these hot destinations, um, a lot of them are familiar because of social media already amplifying it. And to Ian’s point. Always work with the assumption that influencers themselves are not the first data point. Um, they are potentially, there is potentially a brand behind them driving certain behaviors, certain recommendations, et cetera. So while they, influencers and social media are leading some of the data that we’re seeing, and they are, you know. During awareness of, um, you know, awareness that might be reflected in some of the surveys that Conde NAS is is doing or some of the recommendations that are on the travel advice sub subreddit, et cetera, they influencers may be. The source of where that information came from. However, just know that they are not necessarily the first data point, and in reality there is potentially something in play behind that, um, that is actually driving, uh, the, the recommendations and those certain behaviors. So, really good point, Ian.

[00:35:20] Brandon Giella: it makes me think of, uh, related to Conde Nash. She’s the, uh, creative director, if you will, of Conde Nas, Anna Wintour, who was the editor for Vogue for many years. I was, I watched her documentary and there was at one point, basically you come to this realization that she was so powerful based on her. Influencer recommendations of what made it into the magazine or what became the trend for the season, that it oriented an entire industry based on her judgment or her taste or whatever. And you see that in these. Much smaller, uh, uh, ways with these Instagram influencers that they kind of set the tone for or have their taste or whatever it may be, their interests, uh, based on certain trends and so on. And that’s okay. That’s a good thing to listen to and especially if several of your friends follow the same kind of influencer, uh, you can actually talk about that thing together that you went and did. So there’s this like social dynamic as well, like a, an example. Uh, is for us, when we went to the, the borough market in London, there’s this little, uh, strawberry stand that they dip strawberries in chocolate. And it was like, made it into a viral video. And so when we went to London, we went and did that, and we felt like we were part of this like, social moment, you know, if you will. Um, so some of that’s kind of cool, but yes, they’re they’re definitely paid by those

[00:36:42] Rachel Satow: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:36:43] Brandon Giella: keep that in mind. Um, but it is, it, it can be a cool thing, but Yeah, it’s not the only data point for sure.

[00:36:49] Rachel Satow: Yeah, and I mean to your, to your comment regarding. And all of the, uh, the powers that be, uh, that come, um, behind some of these, um, these publications that individuals reference. I mean, I always think of The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly,

[00:37:08] Brandon Giella: Oh,

[00:37:08] Rachel Satow: Ian Blue Sweater. I’m like, anytime I see that scene, it just makes me realize that like there is, there is, there are people in the world who have such, um. Such respect and such breadth of knowledge in certain things that like their whole identity becomes like what is trending. And um, it’s, it’s very interesting to see how that trickles down in different industries, but particularly with travel in this instance.

[00:37:41] Brandon Giella: That’s right. That’s right. And, uh, that’s a not against ai, that sometimes human judgment and taste is still

[00:37:47] Rachel Satow: Absolutely.

[00:37:48] Brandon Giella: should be, you know,

[00:37:48] Rachel Satow: yeah.

[00:37:49] Brandon Giella: thing.

[00:37:50] Rachel Satow: I’m checking the subreddit before I’m going to chat GPT Honestly.

[00:37:53] Brandon Giella: hundred percent. Anyways. Okay, Rachel, bring us home. Why does any of this matter for our listeners? Uh, especially those that are creating or designing these loyalty programs, designing travel programs, thinking about their employees or customers, and, uh, ways that they can design their trips or be thinking about their trips, especially as they come up for summer here soon.

[00:38:16] Rachel Satow: So, I mean, our listeners could be travelers themselves, it could be loyalty and program managers. But I mean, for, for those, for our audience with Switch Fly, it’s, it’s, um, important to note that the reason we’re talking about why these hotspots lists and where everybody’s going, uh, for summer 2026, really is so that you can plan effectively, um, if demand is concentrated. Inventory pressure in increases. So if everyone is booking for certain locations and everybody is trying to go to specific top 20 areas. It’s going to become harder to, to travel and to promote for those things. Um, so that the, the ability to to redeem becomes more challenging. There’s some pricing volatility that comes into play, um, and it’s just, it’s important to know and to keep a pulse on. Not just how people are traveling, whether they’re renting a car and staying, you know, within the United States, if they’re taking international or domestic flights, et cetera. But, um, to also be aware of, of the locations that individuals are traveling to. And all of that is like really powerful data, booking data that. Most platforms are going to store, but it can, in the long term, help you serve better packaging options or recommendations for additional activities. Um, so just be conscientious of, of what is trending right now, just because you can one, lean in, lean into it if you are seeing, um, a little bit of a lull in your summer bookings. Um, you can lean into it from a promotional standpoint, but two, just. Understanding the ramifications that if. Demand is concentrated, things might get a little bit more challenging from a program side. Um, and it’s also very important that you tie it into some of the other internal data you may be collecting. Um, so for example, I know we talked about this in the past. Switch fly. Pulled together multi-year data for airlines, um, particularly to showcase when the travel peaks are and when booking peaks are. Um, it’s important to kind of have multifaceted layers when it comes to analyzing your data and understanding that. One data point is not the full perspective. Um, you need to be able to take a look at where are the top locations, but also okay, when are people going to be traveling? So making sure that you have all of these different facts in front of you to make the most appropriate decisions from a, a promotional standpoint and a support standpoint.

[00:41:01] Brandon Giella: Ian, any, any parting thoughts on, uh, to leave our listeners with?

[00:41:05] Ian Andersen: I mean, I think Rachel’s covered it. I think the is just, uh, rely on data, but. Multiple sources of data, right? Like take,

[00:41:19] Rachel Satow: the of it.

[00:41:19] Ian Andersen: data, historical data into account, but also, look at, um, at trends, obviously look at geopolitics, look at, know, else, um, to make really the best decisions. You can’t solely rely on historical data. Uh, you really gotta take all of it kind of into account, so it’ll be.

[00:41:45] Brandon Giella: you guys have some calendars, uh, I think for, for folks to check out. Uh, can you tell us about that?

[00:41:51] Rachel Satow: Yeah, so I had mentioned the airline demand calendar. That’s, um, under the resources on our site, but we’ll ensure to include it in the show notes as well. Um, and then the other is more for HR tech and employee rewards and recognitions programs. Um, and it focuses on employee travel and when there may or may not be some burnout in your workforce that aligns with our travel booking data. So, uh, both are really valuable resources. To apply with the overlay of like, okay, this is when we can anticipate some demand, and this is where from the hot lists that we’ve mentioned, um, where people may be going, um, and, and making sure that that is all taken into account.

[00:42:34] Brandon Giella: Awesome. You can find more at switchfly.com. Guys, thank you so much. I know folks are preparing for their travel and this is a wealth of knowledge to be thinking about as they’re planning. So thank you so much and uh, we’ll see you next time.

[00:42:46] Rachel Satow: Thanks, Brandon.

[00:42:47] Ian Andersen: Thanks Brandon.