Travel Trends 2025 #4: Cowboy Core (according to Skyscanner)

Every year, Skyscanner releases its Travel Trends report.

For 2025, the platform identified seven imaginative, hybrid, and often surprising ways people will travel next.

In this series, I take a closer look at each trend through the lens of tourism innovation, experience design, and destination strategy.

Source: Skyscanner Travel Trends 2025 > https://www.skyscanner.net/travel-trends/cowboy-core

Trend Overview

What is “Cowboy Core”?

“Cowboy Core” is more than an aesthetic—it’s a travel state of mind.

Skyscanner highlights a rising fascination with wide-open spaces, frontier fantasies, and all things ranch, rodeo, and raw.

This trend channels the spirit of the Wild West, but through a modern, global, and often ironic lens.

It’s about dust-kicked boots, denim, horseback riding, and a taste for freedom—whether played seriously or styled playfully for social media.

Why is it emerging?

A few powerful forces are behind this:

The pop-culture pull of neo-Westerns, country fashion, and Americana

A cultural craving for unfiltered landscapes and slower rhythms

Nostalgia and the search for authenticity in a screen-saturated world

The appeal of “playing a role” through experience-driven tourism

Who is adopting it?

This trend spans from Gen Z fashionistas and digital nomads to families and solo travelers looking for earthy, grounded experiences.

It’s especially appealing to those curious about traditional skills, rural life, or “experiential escapism” through roleplay and immersion.

Where and how does it show up?

“Cowboy Core” expresses itself in experiences that blend nature, heritage, and style:

Guest ranch stays and horseback safaris

Farm-based retreats with skill-learning: fence building, animal care, fire-making

Rodeo festivals and line-dancing weekends

Rural stays with a storytelling layer: myths, folk music, and outlaw legends

It’s a mix of grit, charm, and curated wildness.

Implications of “Cowboy Core” trend for Destinations and Tourism Operators

What does this trend suggest for tourism professionals?

Cowboy Core points to a broader appetite for rural immersion with flair. It’s not just rustic—it’s performative. Destinations and operators can tap into this by:

Creating experiences that celebrate working landscapes while allowing a touch of fantasy

Framing local traditions, crafts, and skills as part of a broader cultural aesthetic

Offering travelers a “role” to step into—farmer, wrangler, woodcutter, homesteader

This trend also invites a rethinking of how rural tourism is positioned: not just as peaceful, but as powerful.

Practical applications and challenges of “Cowboy Core” trend

Opportunities:

Activate underused rural properties as guest ranches or heritage farms

Offer skill-based experiences that feel real but are adapted for short-term stays

Use storytelling and aesthetics (visuals, language, dress) to frame an immersive world

Challenges:

Avoid cliché or caricature: travelers want authenticity, not parody

Ensure ethical treatment of animals, land, and rural labor

Balance performance with respect: not all traditions are costumes

How could this be “Cowboy Core” trend localized in different contexts?

Rural regions rich in folklore, agricultural heritage, or artisanal traditions are ideal. Here’s how the trend might translate:

Organize “cowhand for a weekend” retreats, where guests feed animals at dawn, bake bread in wood ovens, and learn knife-sharpening or cheese-making

Host seasonal folklore festivals blending traditional music, working gear fashion, and dance under the stars

Design a “frontier trail” experience for travelers to sleep in tents, cook on open fires, and hear old stories from shepherds, woodcutters, or weathered artisans

Reimagine the country lifestyle as a transformative journey—not just about place, but about rhythm, resilience, and identity

The point isn’t imitation of the American West. It’s about reclaiming the archetype of the open-air wanderer, the self-reliant spirit, the dance between humans and landscape.

Conclusion

“Cowboy Core” isn’t just a trend—it’s a lens. A way of exploring place, self, and heritage through a dusty, boots-on-the-ground perspective.

For tourism designers, the provocations are clear:

How do we craft rural experiences that are both raw and resonant?

Can we give travelers a role to play, without turning places into stage sets?

What forgotten skills, rituals, and lifestyles are ready to be rediscovered?

When wildness becomes a choice—not a threat—travel opens up new territory.

The most authentic, sustainable, and memorable experiences come from a solid design-driven approach—one that starts with people’s real needs and desires.

It’s time to move beyond ready-made solutions and labels: we need a new kind of direction, one that connects activities, storytelling, and a sense of belonging to the place.

It’s not enough to follow trends—we must interpret them in unique ways, adapting them to our identity and turning them into tangible opportunities.

If you’re curious about how to turn emerging trends into practical strategies for your destination, get in touch: we can explore it together.

And you? What kinds of experiences are truly working in your destination? Or what new ideas would you like to test?
Let’s talk in the comments—fresh perspectives are always welcome.

Sources

Master report: Skyscanner Travel Trends 2025 > https://www.skyscanner.net/travel-trends/summary

Cowboy Core trend page > https://www.skyscanner.net/travel-trends/cowboy-core

Series Navigation

This is post #4/7 in the blog series “Travel Trends 2025 (by Skyscanner)”

• #1 Sport Mode > https://www.andrearossi.it/en/travel-trends-2025-sport-mode-according-to-skyscanner/

• #2 Astro Adventurers > https://www.andrearossi.it/en/travel-trends-2025-astro-adventurers-according-to-skyscanner/

• #3 Reset Jetters > https://www.andrearossi.it/en/travel-trends-2025-reset-jetters-according-to-skyscanner/

• #4 Cowboy Core (this post)

• #5 ART-venture > https://www.andrearossi.it/en/travel-trends-2025-art-venture-according-to-skyscanner/

• #6 Horti-Culture > https://www.andrearossi.it/en/travel-trends-2025-horti-culture-according-to-skyscanner/

• #7 Gami-vacation > https://www.andrearossi.it/en/travel-trends-2025-gami-vacation-according-to-skyscanner/