Market intelligence and expert views shared at the Adventure Travel Networking Conference last week (27 February) pointed to a promising year for the sector, with 36% of respondents in an adventure travel trade survey feeling more confident about the year ahead, and around the same expecting business to be on a par with last year.
Roy Barker, director of Spike Insight, told delegates that while the net business confidence score shared in 2026 was slightly higher in 2025, the results this year still out-perform that in different areas of the UK economy. ‘Confidence is good,” he concluded. “Perhaps not as good as we were [last year] - so perhaps growth is returning to a more normal level,” he suggested.
Styles of travel
Survey responses from more than 150 businesses showed that group tours have seen much more growth this year than either tailor-made adventure trips or self-guided trips.
For 2026 bookings, 44% of companies said group tours have been their fastest-growing segment, followed by 40% saying tailor-made tours and 16% saying self-guided. In 2025, by comparison, 52% of respondents highlighted tailor-made as their biggest growth area, and only 32% saw biggest growth in group tours.
In terms of adventure activities being undertaken, walking and hiking trips have been in growth this year for more than half of tour operators. However, it is cycling holidays which have seen the most significant surge in interest versus last year. In 2026, 38% of respondents said cycling and e-bike trips are in growth, while in 2025 only 19% could say the same.
Ashley Toft, chief executive of KE Adventure Travel, said that while his brand was still predominantly a walking and trekking operator, cycling was certainly a growing area.
“What the e-bikes has done is allowed couples to go together, where one of them does more cycling and the other does less cycling on a regular basis," he explained. "Now their friend or partner can go along on an e-bike if they're a bit uncertain about the level of difficulty or how strenuous it's going to be."
The survey data pointed to a modest increase in sales of women-only tours, with a fifth seeing more interest in this style of travel this year. Intrepid Travel has had particular success in this area, according to the operator’s UK and Ireland general manager, Joanna Reeve, who revealed women’s expeditions were up by 30% year-on-year.
Top-selling and emerging destinations
The classic destination of Italy was the country cited most often by tour operators in the survey as their top-seller, followed by Spain. Uzbekistan was next frequently cited, then Portugal, and to a lesser extent, Costa Rica, the UK and Japan.
Intrepid boss Reeve shared China sales had more than doubled (up by 117%) since the visa fee was waived in February, with the 20-40-year-old bracket making up half of the bookings. Premium tours of Egypt, meanwhile, have surged for Intrepid’s 60+ demographic, keen to explore the culture in more comfort.
The most significant emerging destination across the sector for 2026 is Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan), being the most commonly cited region for year-on-year growth. Algeria, Slovenia, and the Nordic region are other top growers in 2026 versus 2025.
The US is one destination which did not feature in any lists of popular or growing destinations, with conference delegates hearing anecdotal feedback that travellers are dissuaded from visiting because of the country's controversial president, Donald Trump.
KE Adventures boss Ashley Toft shared that, although trips to the US were only a small part of its portfolio, the operator had had "zero bookings" to the States this year. “We do quite a lot of trekking, walking in the National Parks. Not huge volumes, but it is noticeable that it is zero just at the moment,” he revealed.
Greenland, on the other hand, had its “best year ever” for KE last year, after making the headlines when Trump was threatening to invade. “It had some good PR, some wonderful photos - so it was literally in our top three trips for 2025,” he reported.
Pakistan was highlighted by tourism expert Sophie Ibbotson as being one to watch for this year and next, with improved security, Pakistan International Airways recommencing its Manchester and London routes, and a blossoming domestic tourism industry that has led to improved accommodation and infrastructure.
"I'm trying to encourage people to do Uzbekistan and Pakistan as a twin-centre; that's not something that people are currently doing, but there are so many links in terms of the Silk Road history, Buddhism, the Islamic cultural heritage, the Moghal history," she argued.
Now in its sixth year, the Adventure Travel Networking (ATN) Conference took place at St John's Waterloo, two days after ATN26 Marketplace, which saw buyers and suppliers of adventure travel join a series of pre-scheduled online meetings.
TTG Media had been media partner of the event since its inception.
