Where will U.S. travelers explore in 2019? Top trends, destinations and anniversaries

Which destinations do U.S. travelers want to explore in 2019?

Some are making a comeback after a tough 2018. The island of Hawaii, known as the Big Island, seemed to have gotten it all this year: a volcanic eruption, earthquake and hurricane.

The eruption of the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii island caused the closure of a large swath of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Several parts reopened in September.

Highly dependent on tourism, the Big Island is ready to welcome back visitors. And other islands within the chain want travelers to know that they have not experienced similar problems.

Maui was vacation rental website HomeAway’s top U.S. destination for 2019, based on future demand. Its beaches, waterfalls, farms and scenic 53-mile drive to Hana have enchanted travelers.

Rounding out the top five U.S. destinations on HomeAway are all warm weather destinations in the South: Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; Gulf Shores, Alabama; Panama City Beach, Florida; and Miramar and Rosemary Beach, Florida.

Airbnb also highlighted Tennessee. The lodging website has named the Great Smoky Mountains as one of 19 destinations to visit in 2019. Two of the national park's most iconic trails are reopening after a wildfire two years ago. The park has the largest black bear population in the USA.

Nearby is Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, home to Dollywood. Using search, booking and wish list growth data, Airbnb found that there was a 191 percent year-over-year increase in bookings from October 2017 to October 2018 in the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley of New York have also seen an uptick of interest on Airbnb, with a 100 percent year-over-year increase in bookings. It’s a year-round destination with ski resorts, vineyards, orchards and farms, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of the famed Woodstock festival.

“The Catskills provide the perfect backdrop for a laid-back, season-agnostic retreat,” Airbnb says.

Miami is the top U.S. city to visit on Lonely Planet’s list of places to travel to next year. Miami has always captivated travelers for its beaches and nightlife. But in recent years, it has turned into a center for the arts, food and urban design. Downtown Miami has welcomed a $305 million science museum. And the Design District has become a “cultural magnet,” Lonely Planet says.

Seattle, home of Amazon headquarters, is another one of Lonely Planet’s top picks. The online retailer has transformed the Denny Triangle neighborhood. Nearby, the Space Needle has gotten its largest renovation in more than 50 years. Down on the waterfront, a concrete expressway has been transformed into a multi-billion-dollar tunnel.

American Express Travel’s top trending U.S. travel destinations for 2019, based on its year-over-year booking data, are Savannah and Washington, D.C. Charming and historic Savannah this year had a 96 percent year-over-year increase in bookings among card members, while the nation’s capital, in the midst of a hotel boom, had a 21 percent spike.

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New York City is slated to have an eventful year in 2019.

Hudson Yards, the largest urban development to open in the city since Rockefeller Center, will debut in March. It’s a $25 billion project with condos, parks, restaurants, hotels and public art in the West Side of Manhattan. The Statue of Liberty Museum will open in May 2019. The MoMA expansion will be completed next year.

International destinations

In a recent Booking.com survey, 45 percent of 21,500 global travelers said they want to be more adventurous in their choice of destinations in 2019 than they were in 2018.

Some up-and-coming destinations designated by Booking.com include Wadi Rum, Jordan; Bacalar, Mexico; Ouarzazate, Morocco; and Palomino, Colombia.

The United States Tour Operators Association named its hot destinations for 2019, based on a recent survey conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Its members named Italy the most popular destination for travelers in 2019. 

The top 10 hot destinations for the coming year also included Iceland, which ranked second. It was followed by Japan, Vietnam, Australia, France, Spain, Colombia, Cambodia and Portugal. 

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USTOA members also identified their top 10 off-the-beaten path or emerging destinations. Iceland again ranked first and Cambodia came in second. They were followed by Croatia, Colombia, Vietnam, Portugal, Bhutan, Bolivia, Myanmar and Ethiopia. 

“It’s interesting to see five destinations – Iceland, Cambodia, Colombia, Vietnam and Portugal – appear on both the hot destinations and emerging destinations lists,” says Terry Dale, president and CEO of USTOA. “This tells us that off-the-beaten path travel experiences continue to grow in popularity.”

Jonny Bealby, founder of Wild Frontiers, which specializes in small tours to off-the-radar destinations, says Uzbekistan is captivating clients. Passenger numbers to the country were up 40 percent this year compared with last, and Wild Frontiers expects that upswing to continue.

A number of people are choosing Uzbekistan rather than the less stable Middle East to see its Islamic architecture. They are also attracted to the Silk Road, which has seen a resurgence in interest because of China’s One Belt, One Road infrastructure project. This year Uzbekistan introduced a new e-visa scheme, reducing the costs and making it easier to obtain a visa to visit the country.

“Today Uzbekistan offers visitors stunning architecture, a fascinating culture and a whole host of remnants of the great trading route which helped shape the modern world,” Bealby says.

One part of the Middle East that is seeing an uptick of visitors is Jordan. Wild Frontiers saw passenger numbers there double this year compared with last. The country has good infrastructure, hotels and roads. It also has direct flights from New York, Chicago and Detroit.

Other emerging destinations that Bealby predicts will attract more travelers next year: Georgia and the Caucasus for its food scene, southern Cambodia for its new luxury hotels, and Bulgaria for its cultural attractions. Chile and Argentina will likely be popular next summer as the site of a full solar eclipse on July 2.

American Express Travel’s top trending international destinations for 2019 are Barcelona, Spain, Doha, Qatar, Hamburg, Germany, Marrakech, Morocco, New Zealand, Nassau in the Bahamas, Singapore, and Tuscany.

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2019 travel trends 

Industry watchers say these are some of the top emerging trends:

• Immersive and culturally rich travel: About 82 percent of USTOA’s members are offering art and culture travel experiences. The art and culture category was the highest ranked experiential tour type last year based on sales volume.  
• Generation Z: This generation after millennials, typically defined as those born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, is starting to travel and brands are noticing them, according to The Innovation Group’s annual trend report. Generation Z travelers want affordable but authentic experiences. UK tour operator the Holiday Place says Generation Z travelers expect Instagrammability, good internet connectivity, and off-the-beaten track destinations.
• Vacation rentals get super-sized: More travelers have opted to forgo a hotel stay in favor of a home rental on Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO and many other such websites. The sites have gotten more creative with their offerings. HomeAway says its members still rent beach houses, cabins and condos, but demand for castles and estates is up 55 percent and 25 percent, respectively, this year.
• Culinary tourism: More than three in four respondents to a survey of American Express card members say they want to try local cuisine when traveling. “As globalization increases through social media and streaming culinary travel shows, consumers are becoming increasingly familiar with different food cultures and they want to experience the local gastronomy scene,” says Audrey Hendley, president of American Express Travel.

2019 anniversaries

• New York City will mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising on June 28. The riots were a pivotal point in the LGBTQ movement. The city will celebrate World Pride with several events throughout the month of June.  
• The 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair will take place Aug. 15 to 18. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which operates on the Sullivan County property where the legendary festival took place, will have a yearlong celebration, with events such as a screening of the director’s cut of the Academy Award-winning documentary “Woodstock.”
• Next year is the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci at Amboise, France. The country will also commemorate the start of the construction of the Chateau of Chambord and the birth of Catherine de Medici in Florence. Italy and France argue over who can claim credit for these anniversaries, but the Loire Valley will celebrate the artistic, scientific and intellectual accomplishments achieved during the Renaissance in France.

• Singapore is celebrating its bicentennial, commemorating the arrival in 1819 of explorer Stamford Raffles. The festivities will kick off Jan. 28, and several events are planned throughout the year. Exhibitions will be held at the Asian Civilizations Museum, National Museum of Singapore, National Gallery of Singapore, National Library Board, and the Fort Canning Center.