#Trending This Week - Travel Splurges, Hot Dog High Tea, Sleep Tourism, Wellbeing For Meetings, And Cowboy Core
Issue 239 • March 18, 2025
If you can be sure of one thing in life, it’s that if you sit on the sidelines maintaining the status quo, your competition will fly past you. These days it’s all about innovation, creativity, and mastering the pivot and these are the trends which will help you to navigate your travel and hospitality business forward:
CREDIT CARD REWARD AND LOYALTY POINTS are enabling people to splurge on travel as never before.
CHEFS ARE GETTING MORE CREATIVE, turning the simple hot dog into a coveted high tea experience.
WELLBEING IS NOW ON THE MEETING AGENDA as one hotel group works to incorporate wellbeing into group activities to ensure attendees leave not just well informed, but in a better physical and mental state as well.
DUDE RANCH STAYS AND HORSEBACK RIDING are popular online travel searches these days as “Cowboy Core” continues to permeate pop culture.
IT’S NO LONGER ENOUGH TO HAVE A GREAT MATTRESS. Hotels are investing heavily in ensuring a guest has a restful night’s sleep and the list of amenities and experiences to promote those zzzzzs is a huge factor in what is called sleep tourism.
Check it all out in our three-minute read below.
Reward And Loyalty Points Enable People To Splurge
More and more people are using credit card rewards and taking advantage of loyalty programs with airlines and hotels, particularly for international travel. Approximately 66% of respondents to an American Express survey said combining credit card rewards with other loyalty perks leads to them splurging on upgrades they wouldn’t typically pay for. Millennials and Gen Z are twice as likely (61%) as Gen X and Baby Boomers (36%) to use their credit card to maximize travel rewards. Read more in the Time Out here.
Restaurants Are Upping The Creativity Factor
Chefs are really innovating in the food space — even for takeout and fast casual food — and consumers are literally eating it up. Take, for example, this Hot Dog High Tea offered as a promotional event for Chicago dog icon, Portillo’s. It’s being offered in three cities and all are already sold out. How often do you change up your menu or offer innovative twists on old classics? It might be something to think about to drive more traffic and revenue for your food and beverage outlets. Read more in Eater here.
Wellbeing Is On The Agenda For Meetings
Hyatt Hotels recently created a Wellbeing Collective Advisory Board which will seek to elevate distinctive wellbeing experiences for groups and meeting attendees. The new Advisory Board will work to help the brand innovate around the way people gather. The goal is to elevate the travel journey through intentional wellbeing offerings, with a focus on ensuring group participants leave feeling rejuvenated and fulfilled — as opposed to overwhelmed and exhausted from their meetings. Read more in Insider Travel Report here.
Cowboy Core Is On The Rise
Cowboy Core is a growing trend in travel which embraces the rugged, adventurous spirit of the American West, with travelers seeking ranch stays, horseback riding, and outdoor adventures. According to a recent Skyscanner report, “44% of American travelers are fans of Cowboy Core, rising to 63% among 18 to 24 year olds.” Meanwhile, the travel experience marketplace Tripaneer saw interest in horse trail riding up 94% and interest in U.S. ranch stays up 42% over the past year. Read more in Vogue here.
Leaning Into Sleep Tourism
Hotels have always been known as places to sleep, but for many guests, the ability to have a restful night isn’t always guaranteed. Sleep tourism has been on the rise of late as many brands are working to ensure guests are able to sleep more soundly. Amenities include aromatherapy, light therapy, and sleep-inducing teas and foods. Proper Hotels is offering an in-room Lullaby Sound Bath, a 60-minute experience which takes place at the end of the day, when guests are tucked into bed, ready for rest. As the lights dim, a sound bath musician guides the guest through a soothing session, melting away stress and promoting deep, restorative sleep. The experience ends with a final mantra, followed by the musician gently turning off the lights, tiptoeing out, and locking the door behind them. Read more at ABC News here.
CAN WE CURATE A #TRENDING REPORT FOR YOU?
JC Communications has been producing its #Trending newsletter covering the hospitality, travel, food, and sustainability industries for over five years now to help owners, marketers, and publicity representatives leverage the latest trends as part of their sales and marketing strategies.
And now we offer Curated #Trending Reports exclusively created for individual hotels, hotel brands, resorts, restaurants, destinations, tour operators, etc. We’ll have a meeting with you and ask you to fill out a questionnaire to determine the key facilities, services, and USPs of your brand and then curate an exclusive personalized report of relevant trends which you can tap into as you plan your ongoing sales, marketing, and PR strategies.
For more information on the Curated #Trending Reports, reach out to Jane Coloccia at Jane@JCCommunicationsllc.com.