In this series, Talk data to me, we chat with leaders from the world’s biggest brands and agencies about how they’re using insights to drive their business strategies.
We sat down with Aarushi Kumar, Associate Director of Strategic Insights at Tripadvisor, to find out. As the mind behind the Trendcast report - and someone who works with insights drawn from over a billion traveler reviews - she has a clear view of where the travel industry is getting its audience wrong. Her argument is simple: brands are sitting on far richer audience intelligence than they're using, and the ones that close that gap are going to pull ahead. GWI's data backs her up in ways the industry probably isn't expecting.Here's something that doesn't appear in most travel briefs. Tripadvisor users are 60% more likely to adopt new technology the moment it launches than the average consumer. Half follow ten or more sporting leagues or clubs. Nearly three in five describe themselves as genuinely excited about AI. None of that is travel data. All of it matters commercially.
When you combine GWI's attitudinal data research with Tripadvisor's behavioral data, the picture shifts. Someone who searched hotels in Lisbon turns out to also be an early tech adopter, a sports fan, and someone actively prioritizing wellness. Lisbon stops being a destination. It becomes one data point in a much richer profile. The gap between those two readings is where the commercial value actually lives.
Booking behavior tells you what someone did. It doesn't tell you who that person is, or what they'll do next.
The global experiences market, tours, activities, cultural immersion, was worth $271 billion in 2025 and is heading for $342 billion by 2029. It is the fastest-growing segment in travel by some distance, and Tripadvisor's Trendcast data gives a sense of what's driving it. Pet-friendly bookings are up 260%. Extreme adventure is up 79%. A growing cohort Kumar's team calls "Flex Lux" is reshaping what premium means - travelers who want wellness as genuine recovery, not status performance.
But more significant than any single travel trend, is the shift in how people plan trips. Increasingly, the experience comes first and the destination follows. The samurai class in Kyoto gets decided before Japan does. GWI's data consistently shows that the desire for a unique, memorable experience is the starting premise of most vacation decisions, not as an add-on. Brands that lead with logistics are entering a conversation that’s already moved on without them.
One of the more striking things Kumar's team found - and GWI's cluster analysis confirms it - is that the desire to take a cruise shows up with roughly equal prevalence across Gen Z and Baby Boomers. Ambitious, affluent, socially engaged. The underlying profile is remarkably consistent across both groups. The reason Boomers actually take more cruises comes down to circumstance, not character. Retired, capital available, no dependent children at home. Strip away those lifestage variables and the generational gap largely disappears.
Trendcast's traveler archetypes - Trend Settlers, Sweat Jetters, Solo Socials, Foodists - are built to cut across generational cohorts precisely because that's how behavior actually works.
"A campaign built on age finds half the audience. A campaign built on mindset finds all of it."
Kumar measures impact simply: are insights showing up in strategy conversations, closing deals, and shifting how the industry sees Tripadvisor - from inventory platform to consumer intelligence source. The tell, she says, is when insights start appearing in conversations nobody specifically put them in. That's when something has genuinely shifted.
It's a useful standard for any insights function to hold itself to. The real value was never the report. It was always the decisions the report made possible. The 2026 traveler is already visible in the data. The question is whether your organisation is structured to see them - and whether your audience strategy reflects who they actually are, or just where they've already been.
If there's one thing Aarushi's perspective makes clear, it's that the travel industry has more audience intelligence at its disposal than it's using. Here's where to start:
Watch the full conversation between Aarushi Kumar and GWI's Chief Insights Officer, Jason Mander.
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