Inside the
Itinerary.
Findings from a two-year observational study of 40,000 travelers across 183 countries.
Foreword
00 · From the CEORunning Pilot over the last two years has given me a front-row seat to how 40,000 travelers across 183 countries actually plan their trips. Pilot is where they collaborate on trip booking and planning, which means we see the full arc from daydream to departure. This is the first year the dataset felt deep enough to publish something material about it.
A lot of what the public sees about travel is driven by social media. The behavioral data tells a different story, and this report is what we found.
Running Pilot over the last two years has given me a front-row seat to how 40,000 travelers across 183 countries actually plan their trips.
Introduction
01 · Scope & methodBetween April 2024 and April 2026, Pilot observed more than 40,000 travelers across 183 countries as they planned, booked, and shared trips on its platform. This report presents a summary of findings from that activity. It describes who is planning trips in 2026, when they plan, where they go, how they budget, and how they build their itineraries.
All data presented in this report is first-party and observed. Findings are drawn from on-platform planning and booking behavior, session-level analytics, and qualitative research conducted by Pilot, including hundreds of user interviews. No surveys, panels, or third-party data sources were used. Pilot is the sole source for every statistic referenced.
Key findings
02 · Eight observationsEight headline observations from the 2026 cohort:
The Planner-Booker Divide
In median couples, the work of planning and the act of booking are often being split along gender lines. Women currently account for the majority of planning activity: searches, saves, comparisons, and comments inside the plan, while men are completing more of the bookings.
The pattern is consistent with a labor-division dynamic rather than a drop in purchase intent. One partner builds the plan; the other books it.
Age density, by gender
The age distribution of people booking trips varies notably by gender. Among men, booking density peaks in the 27-to-34 bracket, a cohort that includes a meaningful share of frequent business travelers concentrated in coastal US and Canadian tech and finance hubs. That density drops off sharply for men in the 35-to-42 bracket. Among women, booking density peaks in the 35-to-42 bracket.
Combined across genders, the 27-to-42 range is the highest-density travel-planning band observed. The average traveler age within that band is 34.5 years.
Travelers in the 18-to-26 bracket are among the least-observed bookers in the dataset. The same cohort becomes the highest-density booker group once it moves into the 27-to-42 range, suggesting a step-change in hotel-bookable budget as travelers age out of their early twenties. Because this study is weighted toward hotel-based travel (see Methodology), younger travelers who favor hostels, vacation rentals, and other budget accommodation categories are meaningfully underrepresented in the data.
The 56-Day Peak
Trip-planning activity follows a consistent curve across trip types. Activity rises sharply between 90 and 180 days before departure, peaks at approximately 56 days out, and drops sharply inside the final two weeks before the trip begins.
The 56-day peak corresponds to the point at which dates, travel party, and destination have all been locked and travelers shift from aspirational browsing into itinerary construction and booking. Before 56 days, activity is exploratory. After 56 days, activity is executional.
Planning cadence within the week is distinct from activity cadence within the trip. Travelers plan most heavily on Tuesday and Wednesday, but they place specific activities onto Thursday and Friday dates within the trip at higher rates than any other days.
The Family-First Mix
Family trips are the single most common leisure trip type planned in 2026. The category includes both trips taken to visit family and trips taken together as a family unit. Family trips lead by a wide margin.
Most-planned trip types, in order
- 01Family trips
- 02Europe trips
- 03Japan trips
- 04Italy trips
- 05Paris trips
Top destination clusters, in popularity order
Las Vegas, San Juan, Orlando, Los Angeles, Toronto, Tokyo, San Francisco, Vancouver, and New York.
Europe as the outlier
European trips are the longest on average, both in days traveled and in days of planning. The 90-to-180-day ramp-up begins earlier for Europe-bound travelers than for any other trip type, and planning activity continues at elevated levels deeper into the pre-trip window.
The Long-Haul Premium
Travelers from markets that typically rely on long-haul flights to reach the rest of the world spend meaningfully more per trip than travelers from markets with shorter typical flight distances. Australian and Canadian travelers lead on per-trip spend.
Top source cities for most-engaged travelers
Across the 40,000-traveler cohort, the highest-engagement travelers cluster in four source cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, Sydney, and Toronto.
Why the premium holds
Long-haul flight requirements correlate with longer trips, broader itineraries, and higher per-trip budgets. In Australia and Canada, the combination of long average flight distance, strong consumer travel culture, and limited short-haul alternatives produces a traveler profile that budgets generously per trip rather than per day. In parallel, Canadian and Asian travelers extend their plan-to-book window by approximately one month relative to US, UK, and Australian peers, consistent with long-haul planning complexity (multiple flight segments, currency handling, visa and logistics requirements).
The Pillar Effect
Travelers consistently build their itineraries around a small number of marquee, schedule-defining experiences. This report terms these 'pillar activities.' Pillar activities are typically placed on the plan first. Restaurants, walks, neighborhood exploration, and supporting activities are layered around them.
Representative pillar activities
The Empire State Building in New York. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The Leaning Tower in Pisa. For first-time travelers to a landmark destination, the pillar activity is typically the organizing principle of the trip. Every subsequent planning decision (where to eat, what else to see, when to travel) follows from it.
Functions of a pillar activity
Within a trip plan, pillar activities serve three distinct functions:
The Lunch Lead
Inside trip plans, lunch is searched and planned 50% more often than dinner. The finding holds across trip types, age brackets, and regions observed.
Three factors behind the lead
Supporting itinerary data
After landmarks, the top three planning priorities observed across the cohort are food, exploration, and local experiences. The most common itinerary themes named in plans are 'explore,' 'things to do,' 'culture,' 'food,' and 'local.' Relaxation is one of the most common section types in trip plans, including among travelers with otherwise active itineraries.
Hotel-Flight Parity
When travelers import bookings into their trip plans, flights and hotels are imported at nearly identical rates. Neither category leads. The finding suggests travelers treat flights and hotels as equally central components of the trip, rather than organizing the plan around a primary flight with a hotel added as a secondary step.
The 2026 leisure traveler, in summary
10 · ProfileTaken together, the seven trends describe a consistent profile of the modern trip planner. The typical traveler planning a leisure trip in 2026 is:
- 01Between 27 and 42 years old, with an average age of 34.5. Male bookers skew younger in this band (27 to 34); female bookers skew older (35 to 42).
- 02Traveling in a couple or as part of a family.
- 03Most likely female at the planning stage and male at the booking stage, in hetero couples.
- 04Based in a top-source city, most commonly Los Angeles, Chicago, Sydney, or Toronto.
- 05Planning 90 to 180 days ahead, with activity peaking at 56 days out.
- 06Planning a family, Europe, Japan, Italy, or Paris trip.
- 07Anchoring the itinerary around one or more pillar activities.
- 08Prioritizing lunch over dinner when building daily itineraries.
- 09Importing flights and hotels into the plan at equivalent rates.
The findings presented in this report reflect two years of observed behavior across 40,000 travelers.
The findings presented in this report reflect two years of observed behavior across 40,000 travelers. A subset of them will shape how Pilot is built over the next twelve months, particularly the 56-day planning peak, the role of pillar activities in itinerary construction, and the lunch-forward pattern in meal planning.
This report is part of Pilot's ongoing effort to make behavioral travel-planning data accessible to the industry, press, and travelers alike. For citation requests or press inquiries, contact hello@pilotplans.com.
Methodology
12 · Data & sourcesData referenced in this report is observed, first-party behavior from 40,000+ travelers using the Pilot trip planning and booking platform across 183 countries between April 2024 and April 2026. Inputs include session analytics, on-platform planning and booking activity, and hundreds of qualitative user interviews conducted by Pilot's research, product, and support teams. No third-party data providers, panels, or outside survey sources were used. All statistical findings are attributable solely to Pilot.
This study primarily reflects hotel-based travel. Hostels, vacation rentals, short-term rentals, and other non-hotel accommodation categories are underrepresented in the dataset. Findings should therefore be read as most descriptive of travelers whose primary accommodation choice is a hotel. As a consequence, travelers who favor lower-cost or alternative accommodations (including younger, budget-first travelers) are less represented in the demographic breakdowns than their true population share would suggest.
Please cite findings from this report as:
Primary link: https://www.pilotplans.com/
Media inquiries: hello@pilotplans.com
Released under CC BY 4.0. Free to share and adapt with attribution and a link back to Pilot as the source.
Pilot is a collaborative travel planning and booking platform used by travelers in 183 countries. The platform combines AI-assisted trip generation, collaborative itinerary building, and direct hotel booking with access to private member rates. Pilot is based in Vancouver, Canada, and is incorporated as HappyHour Services Inc. More information is available at pilotplans.com.