A love of travel is nothing new in 2026, but it seems that so many people have never loved to travel quite as much as they do today. Travel is now an €9.57 trillion ($11 trillion) global industry, and demand remains remarkably resilient despite pressure on household budgets.
According to Skift’s 2026 State of Travel Report, 88% of travellers still expect to travel in 2026, even as rising prices lead many to adjust their plans. Across major markets, between 67% and 89% of travellers say travel is “extremely” or “very important” to their lifestyle.
The World Cup drove enormous numbers of travellers to North America, and “Euro summer” is now part of the contemporary vernacular. It’s a bona fide travel renaissance, and is pointing to a broader consumer shift.
It’s worth asking why everyone is travelling. Travel has long been one of the strongest ways people create meaningful connections. Exploring new places, sharing unfamiliar experiences and overcoming challenges naturally bring people closer.
As digital interactions take over more of everyday life, and traditional sources of community decline, people seem increasingly intent on finding experiences that lead to real-world relationships. For startups, this creates an opportunity to design products and services around the human desire to belong.
Much of the consumer economy has been designed around convenience and efficiency first, then personalisation. These fundamentals aren’t in decline, but they are making room for a new, social dimension. People want to be brought together, and they’re willing to pay.
The opportunity is to think about community as retention infrastructure: something that gives customers a reason to return beyond the product or service itself. Participation can lead to relationships, relationships to repeat participation, and repeat participation to advocacy and community-driven retention. Experience design is the new feature innovation.
That’s not terribly surprising given the global loneliness crisis. The World Health Organization estimates that one in six people worldwide experiences loneliness, with young people among the most affected groups. At the same time, pervasive digital fatigue is driving a search for alternatives to online lifestyles and constant screen-time, often cited as a major cause of the loneliness epidemic. For founders, this creates space for businesses that provide social infrastructure alongside traditional products and services.
Travel provides a useful example of how this works. Its rapid post-pandemic recovery showed the resilience of demand, while forcing the industry to rethink what travellers want. The experience is becoming as important as the destination, with travellers increasingly looking for self-discovery, connection and belonging. The same Skift report supports this shift: 43% of travellers consider experiences the most important part of travel.
In travel, consumers are thinking well beyond where to go and asking themselves why they’re going at all. The answers increasingly have to do with a desire for connection.
McKinsey estimates that the global market for travel experiences is worth more than €2.6 trillion ($3 trillion), with domestic and international visitors accounting for roughly 30%, or €944 billion–€1.12 trillion ($1.1–$1.3 trillion) in annual spending. Paid, structured experiences represent around €215–€266 billion ($250–$310 billion) of that spending.
This shift builds on the “experience economy”, a concept coined by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore in 1998, where experiences themselves become a source of value. Today, that value is increasingly social. Run clubs, supper clubs and hobby groups are becoming new social spaces, while businesses built around digital connection are moving offline.
Tinder, which has made more than 100 billion matches, began running IRL events in 2026 after Match Group found that singles are two to four times more likely to engage in low-pressure group experiences than traditional one-to-one dating. Airbnb is expanding Experiences, Strava has passed one million clubs, and in Europe, Timeleft brings six strangers together over dinner each week.
What these models have in common is structured participation. They give people something to do together, making connection feel more natural. None of these companies coordinated, yet they arrived at the same conclusion: people want shared, real-world experiences.
The next generation of consumer businesses will need to consider how they create belonging rather than focusing only on transactions. Encouraging participation, repeated interaction and shared experiences can strengthen customer relationships over time.
The wrong lesson is that every company must become a community platform if it wants to survive. That said, founders should ask whether their products create opportunities for connection and memories. A travel company can design group experiences. A fitness brand can build social rituals around activity. A hospitality business can create spaces where customers return for the community as much as the service.
The strongest communities come together through thoughtful experiences and consistent engagement, helped by leaders and facilitators who understand what brings people together. Genuine belonging cannot be manufactured through branding alone. Startups need to deliver real value and create environments where relationships can develop organically.
Europe already has a strong culture of local communities in diverse cities and experience-led consumer markets, giving its startup ecosystem an advantage. Founders don’t need to create the desire for community since people already appreciate its value in everyday life. From travel and hospitality to wellness, entertainment and social platforms, European founders are building businesses that reflect changing consumer priorities.
The startups that recognise that people aren’t just looking for better products but meaningful opportunities to participate and connect, will set themselves apart. Making belonging integral to the customer experience gives brands the power to turn participation into advocacy and strengthen retention.
This is a serious (and people-driven) competitive advantage.
Source: EU-Startups
