10 Terrible Travel Trends That We Do NOT Want to See in 2024

This one we wrote about early in 2023, and it’s counter to the decades-long running trend of “traveling like a local” (as though there’s seemingly nothing worse than being a “tourist”). In 2024, it may be time to embrace your status as a tourist. Accept that you don’t have the local knowledge of the place you’re visiting and that locals have a different outlook formed on a much deeper understanding of a place than you do.

Honeymoons, ok. But Mini-moon, Babymoon, Solomoon, Megamoon, Buddymoon, Familymoon? Stop.

A honeymoon is certainly an occasion for special treatment. It’s a celebration of a momentous life event. But it’s also worth accepting that other trips are special—because travel is an occasion. That said, not every trip has to be branded, and not every trip is so special that you need the same treatment one would expect on a honeymoon. An excuse isn’t necessary to take a getaway with friends, or solo, nor is it necessary to buy that special package that purports to be tailored to whatever “moon” applies as a descriptor.

After the Maui fires in August 2023, there were social media posts of tourists taking photos of the burned-out site of Lahaina Town. While Dark Tourism has always been a trend (Auschwitz, the Titanic artifact exhibits, and Ground Zero are well-trafficked sites), this trend of taking selfies at the site of a disaster while the disaster cleanup is still ongoing is tasteless and insensitive—particularly so because visitors had to trespass to take the photos. When tourism topics are sensitive, such as dealing with natural disasters or human atrocities, always take cues from the local population on how to respectfully view and reflect.

It’s unnecessary to yuck someone else’s yum in the travel space. If someone’s excited about going to Paris, don’t decry it as a tourist trap. If they’re raving about the safari they went on, saying it was “too Americanized” probably isn’t the most tactful response. Everybody’s travel style is different, and that’s ok. There’s nothing wrong with preferring luxury hotels, and similarly, nothing wrong with choosing moderately priced hotels to spare the travel budget for other priorities. Some folks like to travel once a month; some like to travel once a year. Give everyone space to vibe on their own in 2024.

Destinations are unique, despite what anyone on TikTok might say. There are “hacks” floating around about swapping out Perth for Sydney or Liverpool for London, but they ignore that Sydney and London have unique attractions and spirit that make them unlike anywhere else. London isn’t just “a city in the United Kingdom;” it’s London, and there’s no substitute for it.

Set-jetting, or visiting destinations where television shows or films are set, is another trend that’s taken hold over the past several years. Sure, it’s fun to see where Game of Thrones filmed the Walk of Atonement in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and local residents likely appreciated the visitor attention the show brought to their city, but that quickly faded after the millionth visitor thought it would be amusing to recreate the scene. The Jesuit Steps, where the scene was filmed, have its own fascinating real-life history dating back to the 17th century, and that’s really what visiting a place is about—its real life—not its status as a Hollywood backdrop. So just remember if you’re visiting a film location–the destination is so much more than just what you see on  the screen.

A troubling new trend surfaced over the summer, as the New York Times reported–Amazon and other online booksellers were flooded with self-published guidebooks with a mysterious number of good and terrible reviews. These guidebooks, shoddily written with AI from information pulled from the internet (and not verified or fact-checked), have proliferated and made travel planning more confusing for travelers, and it’s time they go.

Voluntourism has altruism at its heart, but the follow-through can get messed up. The amount of money it costs to send a cadre of American teenagers (who have no idea how to lay bricks) to build a brick school in a developing country could easily and effectively be paid out as wages to local bricklayers to build the same school.

There’s nothing wrong with performing civic philanthropy as part of a visit to any community, but dedicated voluntourism trips are generally just as—if not more—extractive as regular commercial travel.

Is there anything more disappointing than seeking travel inspiration on Instagram, searching for a location–and then being presented with a grid full of influencers’ backsides? We get it—tushes get engagement—but we’d rather see pics of the destination the backsides are blocking.

It’s impossible to see the entire world before you expire–or at, least it’s impossible to have a good time doing it. And is it really productive to try to check everything off your list? Sometimes this can even build a place up so much in our minds that we’re actually disappointed when we arrive–it’s a real thing called Paris Syndrome. Get excited about a destination because it’s a place you want to see, not a place you think you do.