The submit Forecast 2026: The developments and trendsetters we’d wish to see in international journey subsequent 12 months appeared first on TD (Journey Each day Media) Journey Each day Media.
With 2026 looming on the horizon, we’ve taken a glance again on the 12 months that’s drawing to a detailed and looking out in direction of what could come subsequent.
For us who cowl the fields of journey, tourism, hospitality, and aviation, which means holding a watch out for each upcoming developments and people who’re sure to set the world on hearth with recent concepts that may shake up typical considering, ushering in higher methods of exhibiting travellers the world round them.
On this explicit function, we current three people with the potential to drive the business’s evolution, together with three developments we see taking centre stage within the 12 months to return.
Three faces to look at in 2026
Beatrice Leong (proper) prepares to steer her masterclass on inclusive occasions at BE @ Penang 2025
Malaysia: Beatrice Leong, gender and accessibility advocate
We had each the honour and the privilege of assembly Beatrice Leong on the not too long ago concluded BE @ Penang 2025 in Malaysia the place she made a powerful case for accessibility in journey and tourism, notably the place MICE is anxious.
As an advocate for gender equality and accessibility for all, Leong famously mentioned: “Activist is only a fancy phrase for individuals who wish to scold governments.”
In her case, although, scolding governments has yielded nice outcomes: Leong’s intrepid drive and that of different accessibility advocates has gone a good distance with regard to creating journey and hospitality in Malaysia extra inclusive.
She has not been afraid to ask the tough questions and is sort of upfront with ideas on how areas will be made extra accessible for individuals who understand or expertise the world in a different way from others, not solely on a bodily stage, however on a neuro-psychological stage, as effectively.
With regard to residing design, specifically, she requested of her viewers: “Accessibility is definitely about how usable is your house, how usable is your product, your service design. How type are you in coping with individuals who have nervousness, who’re most likely dealing with melancholy, however nonetheless must exit to purchase groceries? This stuff require readability of knowledge. How are you conveying the structure of knowledge?”
Leong believes that, whereas full accessibility for all may not likely be potential, people want accessibility on a regular basis; that, in flip wants adjustment on the a part of hospitality suppliers, airways, and facility managers, together with a higher understanding and endurance with travellers who see or expertise the world in a different way from everybody else.
Hers is a voice we look ahead to listening to, particularly given the growing emphasis on accessibility the world over.
Miguel Cabel Moreno dishes up helpings of his Amor del Mar seafood speciality at a four-hands dinner at Crimson Boracay
Philippines: Miguel Cabel Moreno, Michelin-lauded chef and culinary heritage advocate
In a latest interview held within the wake of From Shore to South, a four-hands dinner collaboration at Crimson Resort and Spa Boracay, Filipino chef and culinary advocate Miguel Cabel Moreno informed us concerning the girl who approached him simply minutes after he obtained two Michelin Bib Gourmand nods for his eating places Palm Grill and Cabel.
As Cabel Moreno recollects: “She went and informed me ‘I’d truly desire to obtain your award than a Michelin Star.’ After I requested her why, she defined that it was an award given by the folks moderately than the critics.”
To say that Cabel Moreno’s meals is a love letter to the individuals who like to eat can be significantly underplaying the significance of his work to the folks of Southern Mindanao, a area that has been bypassed all too steadily by Philippine tourism officers preferring to tout the colonial treasures of Luzon and the Visayas.
Certainly, selling the delicacies and heritage of such a far-flung and criminally underrated (and, certainly, oft maligned) vacation spot has been an uphill climb for the chef.
As he put it: “I used to inform potential diners: ‘Look, Mindanao meals is Filipino meals. It’s nearly as good as the standard Filipino aptitude that you simply take pleasure in; just give it a strive.’ So, that has been a continuing wrestle. Regardless of our meager advertising and marketing efforts, presence, and all that, I’m grateful that we have been capable of keep. And the approaching of the Michelin Information validated all that arduous work for us; it helped pave the way in which for my eating places. Talking on my restaurant’s behalf, it opened so many doorways for Filipinos to lastly get to strive it because an entity as big as Michelin Information validated and acknowledged us for what we do. Because of that, it opened folks’s eyes, and now they need to strive it.”
As of press time, Cabel Moreno is poised to open a brand new department for Palm Grill at Tambayan, the brand new meals corridor at Ninoy Aquino Worldwide Airport’s Terminal 3.
Likewise, his youngsters’s books Migoy: The Tausug Boy and The Story of Putli Mandi, written in English, Filipino, and the chef’s native dialect Bahasa Sug, have gone a good distance in presenting the tradition of Southern Mindanao to children of the northern and central components of the nation, in addition to the remainder of the world as these have been featured on the 2025 Frankfurt E book Truthful.
Dr Bona Nahyun Lee (centre) listens as a information explains the historical past of Penang’s George City district
South Korea: Dr Bona Nahyun Lee, best-selling creator and tech evangelist
The great thing about up to date know-how lies in the way in which it makes issues simpler for folks, no matter what business they could belong to.
Such is the case with the MICE sector, a area whose professionals too usually find yourself burnt out as they should take care of the tedium of planning and coordination effectively earlier than the precise occasion goes stay.
However for BornTiger chief govt and tech evangelist Dr Bona Nahyun Lee, up to date applied sciences go a good distance in direction of making issues simpler and extra environment friendly for occasions professionals.
Throughout her discuss The AI-powered Way forward for Enterprise Occasions, Lee identified the rising number of instruments accessible for dealing with every part from planning to precise showrunning.
Synthetic intelligence (AI), specifically, takes a lot of the stress out of the equation, seeing the way it allows professionals to create entire displays with just some key phrases, put together precise occasion sequences, and even simulate venues in use to present all stakeholders a complete preview of their endeavour, enabling them to make the mandatory changes effectively beforehand.
At current, most of Lee’s books are in Korean, however we look ahead to the day when her knowledge on innovation and automation makes it to a wider international viewers.
Three developments to control in 2026
Regenerative and rehabilitative tourism past Asia
One of many main talks in the course of the 2025 PATA Vacation spot Advertising Discussion board in Thailand was a presentation on Doi Tung, a sustainable vacation spot within the north of the nation which was, alas, a hotbed for felony exercise within the infamous heyday of the Golden Triangle.
A long time on, nonetheless, Doi Tung has greater than cleaned up its act, because it now serves as a cultural hub that gives a number of the finest espresso, tea, and even macadamia nuts on the continent.
That being mentioned, Doi Tung’s story ought to serve for example and inspiration to different nations in the case of reworking areas with a lower than fascinating status into locations that supply classes from their historical past together with specialities endemic to the area.
In doing so, governments can help communities via what is named regenerative tourism and basically convey hope to areas with a darkish previous and supply a means in direction of a brighter future.
We have now seen such transformations in battle-torn areas like many components of Japan, in addition to the Philippine islands of Bataan and Corregidor; in any case, anybody who fails to listen to the tales of the previous or heed their classes is sure to make the identical tragic errors.
Immersive studying experiences for the following technology of journey and tourism professionals
MICE isn’t only a means by which industries can collect their finest and brightest beneath a single roof, however these occasions additionally function a studying expertise for the following technology of pros.
We noticed this first-hand at BE @ Penang and at PDMF2025 when entire contingents of scholars and their mentors made their means over to hearken to the business’s foremost minds to realize higher information.
Having been an instructional myself, I can not state sufficient on how publicity to precise business professionals and experiences helps spherical out a person’s schooling: they get to see life in the true world, see the present professionals at work, and achieve a higher understanding of the careers they face when schooldays finish.
Additionally, I’ve come to the conclusion that the concepts provided by college students nonetheless shyly do have an excessive amount of benefit: it takes somebody who has not but been jaded by the rigours and stresses of the career to give you recent concepts or new methods to strategy previous points, bringing these nearer to decision.
Time to rethink MICE
MICE has developed considerably all through this 12 months, and the inclusion of devoted Expertise Zones at occasions like ITB Asia have opened the eyes of many occasion organisers to numerous potentialities.
With know-how altering at such a fast clip, notably interactive programming, MICE professionals want to take a seat down and think about the place they could finest intrgrate these improvements of their occasions.
Certainly, moderately than simply hopping from one sales space or pavilion to a different while urgent flesh or gathering brochures, interactive applied sciences assist members get a higher understanding of the occasion or of latest improvements, thus encouraging them to delve deeper and study extra.
Likewise, due to the introduction of hybrid occasions, nascent and present applied sciences make it potential for these abroad to get in on the motion without having to truly be on website.
Whereas this may occasionally appear awkward, it does give the phantasm of really being there with out constructing an environmentally unsound carbon footprint, thus additionally incomes factors for sustainability.
We’ve a lot to consider for the approaching 12 months, however one factor is definite: with journey and tourism evolving so quickly, the very best factor we will do is sit again, chill out, and simply be there for the experience into components unknown.
The submit Forecast 2026: The developments and trendsetters we’d wish to see in international journey subsequent 12 months appeared first on Journey Each day Media.
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