Advent begins: so what are the travel trends for 2026?
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2025
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My first guest of the month is Rachel O’Reilly Director of Communications for Dertour UK – a company that includes Kuoni, Journey Latin America, Inghams, Kirker, Carrier and CV Villas, She says solo travellers who are not single are the fastest growing demographic.
We talked about the impact of the BBC's Race Across the World in stimulating bookings – and how ski resorts are reinventing themselves in response to climate change.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Corner. |
| 0:04.0 | It's Monday the 1st of December. |
| 0:05.8 | Yes, Advent time. |
| 0:07.7 | And so I thought it would be a good opportunity to start looking ahead to 2026 with some of the top people in the travel industry. |
| 0:17.8 | And they don't really come much topper than Rachel O'Reilly. She's the Directorate of Communications |
| 0:23.9 | for D'Urtour UK. And you might be thinking, never heard of them. But if I tell you that Dertor UK |
| 0:31.4 | includes brands such as Cooney, Jewell-Vern, Journey Lash in America, Ingham's, Kirker, Carrier and CB villas, you might think, |
| 0:40.5 | oh, do they own all those? So, first of all, welcome, Rachel. Do you think it's 2026 already? I kind of get the |
| 0:49.1 | sense that people in the travel industry do. In travel, you have to keep your eye on the year and the years ahead to |
| 0:57.5 | anticipate what people are going to be asking for, to anticipate what's going to be in demand. |
| 1:02.1 | So yes, in some ways, we're already kind of looking at, because we want people to book early. |
| 1:07.5 | People like booking early because it means they have something to look forward to. |
| 1:12.0 | They can budget for it. And that's what we have to anticipate. So yes, there's a lot of planning |
| 1:16.5 | going on. You mentioned the B word budget then. And clearly last Wednesday we heard |
| 1:22.3 | details, basically kind of tax going up in a slightly clandestine fashion, that's going to put people |
| 1:29.2 | off booking, isn't it? Certainly committing a long time ahead. People get nervous before a budget. |
| 1:35.2 | They do. And I think there was probably people waiting for Rachel Reeves' budget, just thinking, |
| 1:39.7 | hang on, I'm just going to wait and see what happens and see what that does to my household budget, |
| 1:45.0 | my spending power. But, Simon, people will always want to go on holiday. It's the bit of joy |
| 1:51.9 | in their life. It's their joy in their family. We heard earlier today I was talking to somebody |
| 1:57.0 | about not just lifespan, but joy span. And that's what holiday does for you. |
| 2:02.9 | I've never thought of a joy span before. So what trends are you seeing? I've heard some of the |
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