Travel Trends 2026 #1: Glowmads (according to Skyscanner)

Every year, Skyscanner releases its Travel Trends Report, offering a window into how travelers’ habits and desires are evolving worldwide.

For 2026, the platform identified seven new travel trends, each one blending lifestyle, emotion, and aspiration in unexpected ways.

In this series, I take inspiration from Skyscanner’s 2026 Travel Trends and explore each theme through the lens of tourism innovation, experience design, and destination strategy.

Each post goes beyond the original report, adding insights and interpretations from my methodology Tourism Trends Insights™, to highlight what these global signals reveal about the emerging meanings, values, and opportunities shaping the future of travel.

Source:

• Master report: https://www.skyscanner.net/travel-trends
• Glowmads trend:https://www.skyscanner.net/travel-trends/beauty

1. What is “Glowmads”?

“Glowmads” are travelers who follow the light, both literally and metaphorically.

According to Skyscanner’s 2026 report, beauty and self care are no longer side activities of travel. They are becoming the reason to travel.

From skincare inspired resorts in Korea to wellness and aesthetics retreats in Europe, a new generation of travelers is designing itineraries around beauty rituals, glow up experiences, and holistic rejuvenation.

This is not just about vanity.

It is about alignment between inner balance and outer radiance, between personal aesthetics and the environments that inspire them.

In the age of Glowmads, travel becomes a mirror that reflects how we want to feel, look, and be seen.

2. Why is the Glowmads trend emerging?

Several cultural and social forces are shaping the rise of beauty centered travel.

First, the global self care movement has expanded beyond wellness. Beauty is now seen as a form of personal expression and emotional balance. Travelers are seeking destinations that allow them to restore both appearance and mindset.

Second, the influence of social media, especially visual platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, has made beauty experiences part of storytelling. From thermal spas to minimalist skincare hotels, travelers are curating trips that look and feel shareable.

Third, there is a growing search for authentic beauty rituals connected to place. From hammams in Morocco to natural cosmetics in the Alps, people are drawn to ancestral treatments that connect the body with local nature and culture.

Finally, in a world marked by uncertainty and burnout, the beauty journey becomes a form of gentle self reconstruction. Travelers want to feel renewed, not just rested.

3. Who is adopting the Glowmads trend?

The Glowmad traveler cuts across generations but is especially visible among Millennials and Gen Z, who see beauty as part of identity and self narration.

They are not looking for perfection, but for experiences that make them feel radiant, confident, and reconnected. This includes solo travelers on wellness breaks, couples seeking shared rituals, and groups of friends turning skincare into social bonding.

Skyscanner’s data also highlights a growing participation from men entering the beauty travel space, showing that the glow trend is no longer gendered.

Luxury seekers and digital creators are early adopters, but mid market audiences are catching up fast, choosing affordable beauty inspired destinations, from Korean beauty hubs to Mediterranean spas rooted in natural ingredients.

For all of them, the journey is both outer and inner care, where the glow comes as much from emotion as from skincare.

4. Where and how does Glowmads show up?

The Glowmad trend is visible in many corners of the travel world, from airports to boutique retreats.

In Asia, Seoul and Tokyo lead with beauty themed hotels, AI powered skin analysis lounges, and cosmetic vending machines designed like art galleries. In Europe, thermal and botanical destinations are reinventing themselves as “beauty sanctuaries” that blend design, nature, and wellbeing.

Hotels are creating signature glow menus that mix spa treatments, nutrition, and mindfulness, while airlines are launching partnerships with skincare brands to enhance in flight comfort.

Urban tourism is also embracing the aesthetic wave. Pop up salons, perfume ateliers, and light therapy studios are appearing in creative districts, turning beauty into a cultural language.

Even in the outdoor sector, beauty meets adventure. Alpine retreats, desert camps, and island resorts are offering detox and skin balance programs inspired by local minerals, herbs, and light conditions.

Wherever it appears, Glowmad travel redefines beauty as an experience of place and presence, not a product.

5. Implications for destinations and tourism professionals

The Glowmad trend invites destinations to look at beauty as a strategic design lens, not just as a niche market.

For tourism professionals, this means rethinking how spaces, services, and narratives can make people feel renewed, inspired, and aesthetically aligned. A beautiful destination is not only one that looks good but one that helps visitors feel good.

Hotels, spas, and wellness brands can position themselves as curators of light, texture, and atmosphere, using sensory design and storytelling to create emotional resonance. Local producers and artisans can also play a key role by transforming traditional ingredients and rituals into distinctive experiences — from olive based skincare workshops in Italy to volcanic clay treatments in Iceland.

For destinations, beauty becomes a bridge between nature, culture, and care. It can connect tangible heritage (thermal waters, gardens, ingredients) with intangible ones (rituals, gestures, emotions).

Ultimately, Glowmad travel challenges tourism to see aesthetics as empathy: an ability to care for the traveler through sensory harmony and gentle transformation.

6. Practical applications and challenges of the Glowmads trend

Opportunities

Destinations can design signature beauty journeys that integrate local landscapes and traditions: for example, a “glow trail” combining thermal baths, botanical workshops, and natural cosmetics made with regional plants.

Hotels and tour operators can create modular programs focused on rest, radiance, and ritual, appealing to both luxury and mid scale audiences. Partnerships with local skincare brands or wellness experts can enhance authenticity and expand storytelling.

DMOs can also use the Glowmad narrative to promote off season experiences, shifting attention from tanning and summer looks to inner glow and cold season rejuvenation.

Challenges

The main challenge is avoiding superficiality or cliché. If the offer focuses only on appearance, it risks becoming empty or elitist. True Glowmad travel requires emotional depth, cultural respect, and credible expertise.

Destinations must also balance sustainability with sensory appeal, avoiding overuse of natural resources and ensuring that beauty experiences contribute to community wellbeing.

Above all, the key is coherence: beauty must emerge naturally from the place itself, not be imported as a global aesthetic formula.

7. How could the Glowmads trend be localized?

The Glowmad trend can be applied across many occasions and formats of travel, not limited to a specific geography.

Destinations can include it in wellness and slow travel programs, where visitors experience rituals of regeneration connected to light, nature, and local ingredients.

It can enrich urban exploration, through creative beauty itineraries that link concept stores, sensory museums, and ateliers where scent, design, and emotion intersect.

Hotels and resorts can design signature glow experiences, combining spa treatments, nutrition, and mindfulness to help guests reconnect with their rhythm and energy.

Cultural and creative institutions can use the trend in temporary exhibitions or residencies focused on the relationship between beauty, identity, and environment.

Finally, destinations can integrate Glowmad storytelling into marketing and brand positioning, presenting beauty not as luxury but as harmony between people and place.

The goal is to create meaningful occasions where visitors can experience beauty as a form of care, renewal, and connection.

8. Conclusion

Glowmads remind us that travel is not only about seeing the world but about feeling renewed inside it. Beauty becomes a language of connection, where self care and sense of place meet.

For destinations and tourism professionals, this trend is an invitation to design experiences that nurture the body, the senses, and the imagination. The real glow does not come from luxury or filters, but from encounters that restore energy and confidence.

In a time when travelers are searching for calm, light, and purpose, beauty can become a new form of hospitality. When done with authenticity, it transforms every journey into a small act of self discovery.

Would you like to explore how the Glowmads trend and other trends could inspire new products or strategies for your destination or company?
Let’s connect and design together: hello@andrearossi.it

Series Navigation

This is post #1/7 in the blog series “Travel Trends 2026 (by Skyscanner)”, reinterpreted through Tourism Trends Insights™.

• #1 Glowmads – The Beauty Trend > (this post)
• #2 Shelf Discovery – The Food Trend > (coming soon)
• #3 Altitude Shift – The Mountain Trend > (coming soon)
• #4 Bookbound – The Literature Trend > (coming soon)
• #5 Family Miles – The Family Trend > (coming soon)
• #6 Catching Flights and Feelings – The Solo Trend > (coming soon)
• #7 Destination Check-in – The Hotel Trend  > (coming soon)

Sources:

• Master report: https://www.skyscanner.net/travel-trends
• Glowmads – The Beauty Trend: https://www.skyscanner.net/travel-trends/beauty

Image: Andrea Rossi with Gemini