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Staycation, sustainable tourism among top travels trends for 2017

Discovering your own backyard. Travel experts say more stay-at-home vacations will be a top travel trend in 2017.

“Staycations are becoming very popular. You can drive to a local destination or you could be a tourist for a week and kind of take that tourist mindset,” says Stephen Joyce, CEO of Rezgo and travel and tourism technologist.

Joyce and his team have written an article on the types of travellers he expects to see, where they want to go, and what they want to do on their next adventure in 2017.

“The millennial group is really looking for adventures, looking for experiences that are more local,” he said.

Joyce also said sustainable tourism will be a popular trend this year with travellers making a conscious effort to reduce their carbon footprint and respecting local culture. Also, expect to see more women travelling solo.

“We are seeing more women travel outside of the family context,” Joyce said, adding that “marriage rates are declining and women are travelling solo more often.”

When it comes to popular destinations for 2017 , the Caribbean, Mexico, Western Europe, and Cuba top the list.

“A lot of big brands are starting to move into Cuba. So we are starting to see the Hyatts and the Hiltons looking at developing resorts – big high end resorts – in Cuba. The fear is a lot of that authenticity in Cuba is going to be lost over time,” Joyce said.

When it comes to best budget destinations for 2017, travel expert Claire Newell from Travel Best Bets says, “I took a look at pricing the airfare with seven nights hotel and in each of these countries the package was less than a thousand dollars and taxes were extra on top of that. Of course, high season the prices may be over that, but the four countries this year are Vietnam, Nicaragua, Morocco, and Nepal.”

Newell also says if a safari is on your bucket list, this is the year.

“This is probably the best time I’ve seen the Canadian dollar to the [South African] rand. So, if you wanted to go on a safari, this is the time to do it.”

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