Australia and New Zealand have re-emerged as trending markets for long-haul travellers from North America, says Alex Sharpe, President and CEO of Signature Travel Network.
Speaking with US travel stalwart journalist Peter Greenberg telecasting from Salt Lake City, Sharpe highlighted there has been an uptick in bookings from Signature Travel Network’s member agencies with American and Canadian travellers.
Picking Sharpe’s brain on ‘what hot’ in terms of destinations to visit, Sharpe said, “the easy answer is Italy, because of the Jubilee Year, but I think the best travellers are looking at more diverse locations.”
Highlighting that the Trump administration’s actions are leading to a greater domestic US focus in 2025, the Signature boss said “exotic travel” was hot.
“It has been an incredible year from a distraction point of view,” Sharpe said.
“Africa is certainly very hot. People are finally getting back to Australia and New Zealand, travelling a bit further. But those trends in the grand scheme of things are still very small to Europe and the Caribbean.”
While Greenberg pinpointed the mainstream European destinations that are eternally busy over summer – Italy, France and Spain – he and Sharpe concurred on Portugal’s emergence as a “very popular destination” in 2025.
Sharpe noted: “What I love about coming out of COVID, overtourism has forced the advisors and the destinations to think more dynamically. How do you get away from Rome, Florence, Venice?… and the other thing they’re finding is Italy is a destination 12 months a year. Unless you have kids in school, why the heck are you going in June, July, August?
“Understanding where else you can go and have a wonderful experience. And travel advisors can say, this is what you’ll miss if you bypass this town, but here’s some things you might not know about if you visit this place. And from a cost perspective, from an overcrowding perspective, you’re going to have a much better experience overall,” Sharpe added.
On the home front, Greenberg and Sharpe discussed the impact the Trump administration is having on outbound travel from North America.
“There’s generally no fear for Americans travelling outbound,” Sharpe said. “There’s a lot of fear out there.
“I think there are people out there that want there to be fear. That don’t want this current Administration to be successful. I get that.
“One of the things we talk about as a network is where do we impact, and it’s not about picking sides, it’s about making sure people feel comfortable travelling.
“They want the freedom, and as travel people, a core belief is that travel fixes things. It changes people’s impressions. It transforms people. It makes us better people. Travelling to different destinations is a great way to create empathy and create understanding.”
Sharpe said after a recent conversation with network partners it was clear that Canadian travellers were preferencing sailing from Europe over Caribbean voyages, with those citizens reluctant to enter the US for a cruise out of Miami due to the way Trump was running the country.
Greenberg suggested the Trump government’s stance could see a huge spike in domestic tourism in the United State. “We could see it be another summer of the Great American road trip,” he said.
“What we’re seeing now is closer-in bookings,” Sharpe shared of the booking window. “Since COVID the timeline for bookings was stretching out further and further, and now we’re seeing a shorter booking window.”
“That insecurity or instability has people thinking, I’m just going to go now. It’s better this week, the world’s not falling apart so we’re booking. I do think we’re going to see some last-minute travel.
“I can’t figure it out. It’s worse than solving a Rubik’s Cube.
“We’re seeing a lot of challenges in the National Parks right now, but overall I think people are taking advantage of the US market and visiting some of our great resorts,” Sharpe concluded.
