Day trip bookings grow 110 percent, survey shows ahead of World Tourism Day
New data from The Tour Guy shows day trip bookings up 110.7 percent, as travellers are increasingly getting out of the city
As the travel industry approaches World Tourism Day on 27th September, the trend of the day trips emerges as clearly as ever.
A recent survey by the destination marketplace and tour operator The Tour Guy found that 85.4 percent of travellers opt for day trips when visiting a destination. They move beyond the Colosseum, the Louvre, or the Uffizi to explore what lies just outside city limits.
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The finding lines up with booking data. Day trips on The Tour Guy platform are up 110.7 percent year over year in 2026. The pattern is clear: tourists are adapting to crowded popular destinations by getting out of the city.
64.9 percent of respondents declare they like day trips because they’re curious to see the countryside, seaside, and natural landscapes beyond the city borders. On the other hand, 53.4 percent of respondents already know a precise attraction outside the city and want to visit that specifically.
A very limited number of travellers – 8.5 percent – simply want to take a break from visiting a city.
People search for innovation, as one in every four day trips sold this year comes from new experiences that weren’t available in 2025.
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None of them are new destinations, though. They are new ways of experiencing places travellers already knew. One of them is the new archaeologist tour in Pompeii, a widely known destination for international travellers. It gives a twist to the traditional visit by pairing the ruins with the geology of Mt. Vesuvius, guided by an archaeologist and a volcanologist.
In the Italian region of Chianti, a tour once folded into a broader Tuscany itinerary is now dedicated entirely to wineries. Same destinations, sharper focus.
The pattern of looking for new experiences in recognizable destinations is consistent. The three fastest-growing day trips are also among the most recognizable names. The trip to Sintra from Lisbon and the visit to the Tuscany villages from Rome, for instance, have registered a quadruple-digit growth in bookings.
The trip to Mont-Saint-Michel from Paris follows closely as the third fastest growing day trip. While familiarity earns the first click, the experience itself is what drives people’s decisions.
“Ahead of World Tourism Day, travellers are telling us something very clearly: tourism doesn’t end at the city gates.” said Sean Finelli, CEO and Co-Founder of The Tour Guy.
“Day trips represent a huge opportunity for the whole travel industry, as they allow to create new experiences starting from what people already know. Recognition and innovation represent the magic formula to make travellers book.”
