For decades, travel has been driven by a single question: where should I go next?

But that question is changing fast.

Today, people aren’t just looking for destinations , they’re looking for things to do once they get there.

The Shift From Places to Experiences

The global experiences market is projected to reach $3.1 trillion by 2025, yet only $1.3 trillion comes from tourist spending and just a quarter of that is structured and paid. The rest remains offline, unbooked, or unmonetized.

This isn’t a demand problem. It’s an infrastructure problem.

Travelers want to find and book experiences, but the systems that should make that easy still don’t connect the dots. The result? Millions of untapped moments, from local food tours to cultural events, that never make it online.

What’s Driving the Change

More than 60% of global travelers now plan trips around live events and entertainment. Gen Z spends twice as much as Boomers on experiences and their decisions are driven by content, not geography.

They don’t start with “where should I go?” They start with “what’s happening?”

And that shift changes everything. Travelers discover experiences first, then choose the destination that offers them. For operators, this means visibility no longer depends only on location, it depends on discoverability, and how easily experiences can be booked in the exact moment of inspiration.

The New Winners in Travel

The platforms that enable event-led discovery and in-destination booking are the ones positioned to win.

The next generation of travelers expects to book a cooking class, concert, or sailing trip the same way they book a ride or order dinner instantly, from their phone, without friction.

For suppliers, this means the opportunity isn’t just in building better experiences, it’s in making them accessible. The infrastructure behind tours, activities, and events needs to evolve as fast as the travelers themselves.

From “Where” to “What”

Travel used to start with a map. Now it starts with a story, a clip, or a post.

People aren’t asking where to go anymore, they’re asking what to do there.

And the businesses that answer that question first will define the next chapter of travel.

Many are building for discovery and distribution.

The real question is, who’s innovating in discovery?