What Readers Actually Want from Travel Writing Right Now

Write Your Way Around the World: How depth, responsible travel, and digital storytelling are redefining the genre

If you’re new here, every week I share tips, insights and actionable ideas on writing, travel writing and green travel through the lens of a novelist and travel writer (Lonely Planet, DK Travel, etc.) in three newsletters: Storycraft, Write Your Way Around the World and The Green Travel Guide. Welcome, and thanks for coming on the journey!

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The way we tell stories about place - and the ways in which readers consume those stories - is shifting. As we head toward 2026, here are a few key trends I’ve noticed shaping the travel writing landscape.

Stories with depth, not checklists

‘Top 10…’ lists and ‘48 hours in…’ pieces play a useful role in travel media. They telegraph the highlights of a place quickly. This kind of article suits bite-sized content formats (especially on social media), and appeals to time-pressed readers. They are also SEO-friendly - which helps content creators gain traction too.

However, as the sheer volume of this type of travel content has multiplied (and with the advent of AI enabling personalised itineraries and tailored trip agendas), canny readers today are also craving something richer: lived experience, local context, cultural understanding.

Top online searches in the travel writing space currently include lesser-known destinations (we want to get away from crowded hotspots and overtourism), eco-travel and sustainable travel, long and slow stay travel, how to travel like a local (again - we’re looking for something more rooted), and niche travel (foodie/culinary trips; noctourism; short escapes). Cultural immersion (history or heritage travel), nature-based trips and remote work/digital nomad life all also rank high in the searches.

What is clear is that many of us yearn for more travel in our lives, and that we’re increasingly seeking out meaningful journeys.

It’s time to start building more narratives around people and stories, rather than landmarks or ‘must-see’ lists: time to connect, engage deeply, observe and learn. In a world that is telling us to go ever-faster (our attention spans are shrinking, our ability to focus damaged by an endless onslaught of micro-content) readers are pushing back, slowing down, and rediscovering the art of getting lost in story.

You can see that reflected in recent trends around ‘storytelling’ on social platforms, with greater personalisation of travel listicles and thematic curation rather than purely ‘must-sees’.

The valuable currency is connection.

Of course there is space in the travel writing market for all kinds of content - from service-based pieces to literary narrative, but increasingly we’re leaning towards experience over information. You can see this mirrored in shifts in guidebook-writing; books slimming down, content moving online more, editors shifting from information-based directory style book formats into much more experience-based writing.

If you love travel stories that dig a little deeper, read this piece on Anthony Bourdain & What Makes Great Travel Storytelling Bourdain wasn’t a classic travel writer - he was a chef, broadcaster, writer - but his storytelling does what the best travel writing can do - it connects you to the place more deeply (through exploring the journey of personal to political). It makes you care.

For some fabulous interviews that get to the heart of what it is to be a travel writer, I recommend you give a listen to writer and journalist Sophy Roberts’ podcast Gone to Timbuktu.

I’ve shared several of my favourite travel writers in this piece on Freya Stark and the art of travel writing (scroll toward the end for reading recommendations including Kapka Kassabova, Rebecca Solnit, Colin Thubron, Kate Harris, Pico Iyer and Ryszard Kapuściński) - writers who write longform and narrative with real depth and humanity.

Just as we’re rediscovering the joys of slow travel, so too is it influencing how we tell and read stories.

Travel Writing Is Becoming Digital-First & Visual-Forward

Print magazines have become niche-audience rather than mainstream. The platforms have shifted - whether you look for your content in newsletters online, blogs/vlogs, social platforms or independent media - the big names have all moved (and sometimes downsized) to become more digital-facing.

Writers now:

• pair words with strong photography

• Often use short video or reels alongside reporting

• Are building interactive guides

• Shape content for mobile screens

The field is more accessible than ever. If you’ve got good stories to tell, you’ve access to the technology and platforms to share that content in a range of ways unimaginable previously. A distinctive voice is crucial - as is presentation.

A fine example of this on Substack is the work of Andrew Paget who is blending quality travel writing with high quality photography - images that tell stories. You’ll find links to more of his work in this piece on The Art of Travel Writing Without Leaving Home.

While counter-intuitively we might yearn for a good old-fashioned book to take our travel reading offline - we also look to immerse more experientially in the world of travel storytellers visually online where possible.

Sustainability is now becoming mainstream

I’ve written recently about the business case for sustainable travel, and topics like community-led tourism or conservation tourism. And in The Ultimate Green Travel Guide, I’ve explored in-depth how traveller expectations have begun to shift in favour of more ethical, slow and sustainable travel practices.

Booking.com in their 2025 Sustainability Report surveyed 32,000 people across 34 countries and found that travelling more sustainably is important to travellers (84%).

In key travel industry events like the World Travel Market held in London earlier this year, highlighted trends show slow travel, climate-awareness and sustainable travel on the up. Also highlighted was a growth in experience-related travel, a desire to contribute positively to local communities, and for meaningful engagement. Tourism Boards are going green and when everyone is claiming to offer eco-credentials, quality travel journalism becomes all the more important for readers.

Travellers want to understand their impact, travel without causing damage (ideally even giving back and creating value) and writers will find readers searching for content on:

• regenerative travel

• Local economic benefit

• Climate considerations

• Community-led and owned experiences

Travel writing creates a space for reflection about how we move through the world, not just where we go. The best travel writing instinctively understands and honours that.

Personalisation and Tech are shaping travel and writing

Trip-planning tools, AI-powered itineraries, and niche platforms are changing expectations. At the World Travel Market and elsewhere, AI personalisation continues as another major growth area.

For writers, this creates opportunity as much as uncertainty. Think in terms of specific topics (e.g. wellness, culture & climate, long-stay travel, digital nomadism, retiree travel, solo travel, culinary journeys) - and it can be easier to reach readers. If you’ve experience in an area, it makes sense to build expertise there with your writing.

AI, while powerful, tends to flatten writing voice and it can still be wildly inaccurate at the best of times.

Here’s a great piece from the BBC on The Perils of Letting AI Plan Your Next Trip.

In the end, it’s voice, a particular sensibility or way of thinking, and actual experience of place, that ultimately readers connect to. That’s what makes your storytelling memorable.

Can you make your reader feel the place you’re writing?

Credibility and inclusivity matter more than ever

With so much content available and so readily, readers are seeking discernment and reliability. They want to know:

• Is the story source transparent about partnerships?

• Is there actual research behind the piece?

• Is it researched and written with cultural sensitivity?

• Does it reflect diverse perspectives?

All of this matters. And in all the online noise, longform travel writing - the essay, the in-depth journey, the literary narrative feature - is regaining value.

What this means for travel writing

For writers:

Embrace depth, develop your distinctive voice, and build your stories around place and people - not just aesthetics or information.

For readers:

Expect richer, more reflective, personal travel narratives, and more discussion of responsible travel.

For destinations:

Those that highlight local stories, sustainability, and that keep it real will stand out in a crowded, noisy field of travel offers.

Travel writers are, and have always been, an especially resilient type of writer, comfortable with discomfort, with getting lost and getting off the map. That continues to be the case.

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Develop Your Travel Writing Skills

Are you passionate about travel and stories, keen to write more but want some support to get started or develop your writing? Find more resources here. Created by an experienced author, novelist and travel writer (published by Lonely Planet, DK Travel, Bradt Guides, Irish Times, Irish Independent, featured in BBC, Newsweek, New Internationalist ++).

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What I’ve loved on Substack this week

I always enjoy Leave It To Anna’s stories and visual snapshots of travel life. Here’s one of her notes from Tokyo (thanks Anna!) with images from her trip.

Also appreciating Maddy Slatt’s evocative photography and reflective writing.

Thanks for all the shares and quotes this week like this thoughtful one from Sarah. Loved this image of the rucksack full of books.

If you missed it, travel Prague to Ljubljana by train - on a bookish winter journey through timeless Central European Cities.

And a big thank you to everyone who took the time to comment and chat on posts or notes this week. ❤️ I appreciate that, and getting to know more of you. In particular thanks to everyone who took the time to share some fantastic book suggestions in relation to the Storycraft mini-series on The Geography of Place - which looked this week at City as Character within writing, and how fiction can help us travel. That’s my December and January reading sorted!

If you’re looking for travel-related books as holiday gifts, check out the British Guild of Travel Writers Gift List. Delighted to have Lenny on there too.

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What You’ll Learn Here — Every Tuesday

If you’re new here, a good place to start is: Think You’re Not a Travel Writer? Think Again and to find all the latest writing and info click here.

Every Tuesday in Write Your Way Around The World, I share:

• Practical guidance on writing craft, pitching, editing, and freelancing

• Encouragement for staying resilient and consistent as a writer

• Real talk about money, mindset, rejection, and career-building

• Inspiration from great travel writing and emerging trends

• Resources to help you go further, faster

Future weeks will dig deep into how to make a living doing this, how to get published, how to find your niche/s or not (just write what you love), how to turn your travel notes into paid work. Grab my Travel Writer’s Starter Pack if you want a detailed framework to get started travel writing, along with guidance on how to get paid and published for your writing.

Let me know which topics you would like to know more about.

Happy writing!

Laura

Laura McVeigh

Author, Travel Writer, Storyteller

lauramcveigh.com | lauramcveightravel.com | travel-writing.com | greentravelguides.world

Laura McVeigh is an internationally bestselling Northern Irish novelist and travel writer. Her work is widely translated. She has authored books for Lonely Planet, DK Travel, travel writing published by Bradt Guides, bylines in the Irish Times, Irish Independent, featured by the BBC, Newsweek, New Internationalist & many more. A polyglot and former CEO for a global writers’ organisation, she has worked with writers from 145 countries. She is founder of Travel-Writing.Com and Green Travel Guides. Laura writes on storytelling, travel writing and mindful travel on Substack.