Destination of the year for 2026 goes to…Big Sky, Montana. That’s not a typo, given the pace of the week that has just been, with Expedia Unpacked’26 in Hobart, Beyond Borders, plus the NTIAs in Brisbane. I’ll apologise upfront if you have seen a few typos this week in our regular issues.
No, Big Sky Montana has, indeed, been awarded Destination of the Year 2026 by Expedia in its latest Unpacked’26 research. Yes, it’s still 2025, but this is all about what people are searching for.
According to the research, “this year’s Destinations of the Year list is powered by real-time search data from Expedia’s app and website – revealing where global traveller interest is taking off”.
It’s interesting for several reasons, not least because inbound travel to the US is currently in turmoil.
The government shutdown has cost it dearly in terms of both convenience for travellers and reputation, and that’s already after the reputation hit it has taken from the change to the Trump administration.
You can see a live tracker of the cost to the country from the US Travel Association. At last glance, the figure had hit US$2,290,397,018 – but it is climbing alarmingly fast. It will be significantly north of that if you click the link now.
The (additional) salt on the wound came this week when news broke that the US passport had officially dropped out of the top 10 most powerful passports. It’s the first time in 20 years that it hasn’t featured in the Henley Passport Index top 10.
In 2014, it was number one; in 2025, it is tied for 12th with Malaysia. Its previous ranking of seven in 2024 has been taken by Australia. The thing is though, it is worse than it seems – if there are multiple countries tied for a position, the next position is still labelled as the number directly after.
For example, five countries are ranked fourth, but the next ranking is still given as fifth, not ninth, so the reality is there are far more than 11 countries that outrank the US in terms of passport power.
This is why Expedia’s proclamation of significant search interest in Big Sky, as well as Fort Walton Beach in Florida, will be welcome news to anyone involved in US inbound tourism.
The research also highlighted Banana Ball, a whacky baseball-style game played in Savannah, Georgia, as one of the most popular sports for travellers visiting the US.
And thankfully, there is no end in sight to the US benefitting from the trend we are now calling ‘set-jetting’, where travellers intentionally visit the location where a favourite show or movie was based.
While location scouting has increasingly become more globalised, Expedia suggested that “set-jetting is projected to become a potential $8 billion industry in the US alone”.
It is driven by interest in pop culture-inspired holidays, accelerated by 53% of travellers that say their desire to take a set-jetting trip has increased. Among Gen Z and Millennial travellers, 81% now plan their getaways based on what they’ve seen on screen.
In another interesting and related twist, while they are not stats predicting 2026 patronage but are from July this year, all airlines flying direct between Australia and the US saw solid figures compared to July 2024.
The latest BITRE stats showed American Airlines was flat, while Delta was up 11.9%, Hawaiian rose 7.9%, Qantas’ US services were up 8.4% and United was forward by 3.2%.
Despite this, ABS statistics are not rosy. I was going to do a deep dive myself, but The Guardian beat me to it and it’s worth a read, HERE.
As Greg Jericho wrote, “Generally, Australians’ travelling habits since the pandemic have moved away from the US. In the past year, 28% fewer travelled to the US than we did in the year before the pandemic”.
He continued, “Ten percent fewer Australians travelled to the US in August this year than they did last year. That was the only drop among our 10 most common travel destinations”.
“And it was not just a one-month abnormality. Travel to the US during June, July and August was also down 3% compared with last year.”
There are some great graphs there that are worth a look at.
Moving away from the US, Expedia gave Australia – in particular, Tasmania – something to be excited about, naming Hobart in its top 10 Destinations of the Year list.
It’s a well-deserved accolade for the small city, which is hitting winner after winner. It also walked away with no less than four hotels awarded a Michelin Key, the hotel equivalent of a Michelin Star, in the recently announced list.
For the year ending June 2025, visitors spent a total of $3.601 billion in Tasmania, with an average spend of $2,671 per person. Impressively, the average visitor stayed 9.5 nights.
No doubt some of the success has been down to the sharp marketing coming out of Tourism Tasmania, its presence hard to escape from.
Before we move on to the rest of the week, a quick US Travel Association check, and the government shutdown has now cost the country US$2,298,100,297.
In other news, we sent out a breaker on Friday announcing the launch of the Council of Independent Travel Agents and Advisors (CITAA), led by the Australian Travel Industry Association.
“We recognise that there could be some independent agents who have felt the association favours larger businesses – as a board, we would probably fundamentally disagree with that, but this is our opportunity to demonstrate that we are open to constructive dialogue,” shared ATIA Chair Christian Hunter, at the Beyond Borders Travel Summit this week.
The launch of the new organisation comes at an interesting time, given The Cruise and Travel Store founder Belle Goldie recently revealed plans to launch her own organisation to empower the voice of independent agents.
Other breaking news we covered was Consolidated Travel Group (CTG) acquiring a 40% stake in Entire Travel Group (ETG), which will see CTG exec Ari Magoutis join the ETG Board.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, I attended the launch of Webjet’s major transformation and chatted with Webjet Group CEO and MD Katrina Barry about the evolution of the brand and its new offerings, including Webjet Business Travel, touring and hotels.
The next night, I headed to Hangar 96 with the fashion pack for David Jones’ and Qantas’ glamorous runway show, celebrating their new loyalty program. It was a glittering affair, as the models displayed DJs’ new spring/summer collection in front of a Dreamliner while singer-songwriter Kita Alexander performed.
From the skies and onto the seas, Ponant recently announced the appointment of new CEO Benoit-Etienne Domenget, who was previously CEO of Somerset Education, one of the world’s leading luxury hospitality schools.
It feels like the youth market is experiencing a shake-up at the moment. Off the back of Topdeck recently returning to its small group roots for customers, this week, TruTravels has launched a new travel style aimed at 18-29-year-old Aussies who are looking for a more affordable and social way to travel across Asia.
The ‘Backpacker’ offering will see travellers stay in hostels and shared dorms to facilitate authentic connections, with optional add-ons and more free time available.
“As we’ve grown alongside our travellers and heard from many of our partners, we know how important it is to keep supporting that first-time adventurer,” TruTravels Head of Commercial Australia & New Zealand James Lavin explained.
“[These are the people] who just want to get out there, travel affordably, and experience these incredible destinations. They care more about the moments and the people they meet than the comfort level, and that’s exactly what Backpacker is all about.”
Tonight is the travel industry’s night of nights, the prestigious National Travel Industry Awards (NTIAs), and we’re the media partner, so my colleagues Travel Daily Editor Adam Bishop and Business Publishing Group Publisher Matt Vince are both attending in Brisbane and covering the news tonight. Good luck to all the finalists – you’re all winners in our eyes. Look out for our Beyond Borders special edition coming out on Monday to get all the goss.
