The Future of Romantic Travel

A Foresight Report for Mr & Mrs Smith

report
category - alcohol
category - digital
category - society
sector - travel & hospitality
type - case studies
Case Studies

As the luxury travel market size is expected to reach $2.5 trillion by 2025, Mr & Mrs Smith commissioned The Future Laboratory to identify key trends that will shape the romantic travel market in the decade ahead. The Modern Love: Exploring the future of romantic travel report discusses the up and coming desires and behaviour shifts of the future romantic traveler. 

‘The Future Laboratory gives us the kind of insight that helps us plan for the long-term future of our business. This research is something we can provide to the hoteliers in our collection as something of a toolkit, something we can use to help adapt our own business practices and, we hope, something that starts a meaningful discussion about our future relationship with romance and travel,' states James Lohan, co-founder of Mr & Mrs Smith.

By 2030, our wildly held notions of romance will have expanded considerably to become broader, more diverse and more meaningful than ever before. As people re-evaluate their relationships with themselves, each other and even the planet, romantic travel will foster human connections and intimacy in an increasingly automated world.

Through our analysis, we have identified the emerging trends that will shape romantic travel over the next decade. From psychedelic connections to sensory, responsive hotel rooms, this report examines how hotel lovers’ changing values will alter each aspect of the hotel experience. 

Below is a snippet from the Modern Love foresight report created by The Future Laboratory for Mr & Mrs Smith.

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Commissioned by:

14 February 2020

Author: The Future Laboratory

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: New Romance Rising

Die For Love by Dilara Findikoglu

In the coming decade, milestone trips like the first couple’s holiday, the honeymoon and the first trip away with your kids will sit alongside new travel keystones: 

: Buddymoons – where you enhance your commitment to your significant platonic others

: Polycule peregrinations – where the bonds between polyamorous lovers are strengthened and celebrated

: Nuptial nomadism – where destinations, substances and more lead you and your spouse on an intimate emotional journey, as well as a physical one

: Situationships – where the relationship is place based and context based as much as it is person or relationship based

: Self-romance and platonic relationships – where the focus is on the self or significant friends

: Brotopian breaks – where men take holidays with gay and straight friends to redefine notions of male bonding and togetherness

: Co-romantic breaks – where multiple breaks are undertaken to suit the multi-romance requirements of all parties involved in the relationship

: Polymoons – where multi-party relationships go wild together

: Co-romancing Rising

Third: Doyenne summer 2018 collection. Photography by Serena Brown

As global living, co-working and co-living rise as trends, the idea that romance consists of monogamous marriage and cohabitation will be entirely deconstructed. Co-romancing will occur, with more people taking up multiple relationships and seeking connections with various partners. The first trip polymoon (honeymoon for polyamorous people) with boyfriend number two will be considered to be as significant as the honeymoon away with one’s significant other.

‘Social media and dating apps,’ says Kate Moyle, ‘have opened up visibility into the lives and relationships of others. The more we see people doing something, the more familiar it becomes and that shift in perspective gradually alters our idea of the norm.’ This will mean that, within a decade, the notions of co-romancing will be entirely recognisable for a generation of digital nomads.

Fluent in the hotel concept when it comes to functionality and fluidity, co- romancers will look to luxury breaks to offer the perfect re-imagining of their living situation: distinct from the functional, essentialised co-working and co-living environments, next-level sensual bedrooms will offer a chance for nomadic workers to indulge in fantasy and romance in a completely different setting.

Tri-romantic Retreats will mean polyamorous groups – or polycules – will enjoy trips that help nurture their bonds, as any romantic getaway for couples would. The Summer House Weekend, for example, is open to polyamorous and monogamous couples, giving them room for exploration, intimacy and connection around group experiences, discussions and meditation.

More hotels will embrace these new relationship configurations, adding triple beds to the standard double and twin offering, with hotel room details to match: three robes, three sets of slippers and three chocolates left at turn-down.

Discover The Uncoupled on LS:N Global – a consumer Tribe who are choosing to embrace singledom, polyamory and platonic love over traditional romantic relationships.

DISCOVER THE UNCOUPLED 

“The more we see people doing something, the more familiar it becomes and that shifting perspective gradually alters our idea of the norm”
Kate Moyle, UK sex expert for Lelo, and therapist on BBC

: Psycho-activated Pleasure

Foria

As wellness booms and technology invades our everyday lives, the emphasis will increasingly fall on intimacy, pleasure and human connection. But this is no staid couples therapy cliché. With new- generation start-ups tackling the female pleasure gap, and rural escapes offering the chance to switch off from screens and switch on to each other, consumers will seek to re-centre themselves in their bodies and in the environment.

Following the legalisation of cannabis in many US states, a new generation of brands have entered the market that focus on pleasure and wellness, and women’s pleasure in particular. Over the next decade these brands will herald a growing openness to substances with less damaging effects than alcohol to allow couples to arouse and excite their sensuality.

Foria, a premium wellness brand created by Matt Gerson, puts women’s pleasure at the forefront of its offering. With products such as Awaken, a natural arousal oil; Pleasure, a THC-infused lube; and Explore, suppositories that combine CBD and THC, Foria caters for women’s wellness needs where traditional medicine has often ignored them.

Equally, in the beauty space, brands like Prima rely on the all-natural wellness benefits of CBD to tackle skin inflammation, anxiety and sleeplessness. For female consumers, these brands offer a way to tackle the pleasure gap revealed by a 2017 report by Archives of Sexual Behaviour that showed while straight men orgasmed 95% of the time, straight and bisexual women orgasmed only 65% and 66% of the time, respectively. This number rose to 86% for lesbian women.

Remedy Review revealed that 68% of respondents that had tried CBD in the bedroom said it improved their sexual experiences. And, according to Business Wire, the global adult toys market, worth $23.7bn in 2017, will be worth $35.5bn by 2023, further affirming the trend towards more open sexual experimentation between intimate partners and on an individual level.

The popularity of CBD and THC products further points to a trend towards embracing nature and the natural to enhance sensuality, mood and pleasure. With Millennials moving to the countryside nearly 10 years younger than any other generation (the average age in the UK of moving to the country fell from 47 in 2008 to 37 in 2018, according to Hamptons International), it’s clear that a younger generation are re-embracing the outdoors as natural escapism.

‘Even across a broader base, we saw an increase in country bookings over city stays of almost 40% in 2019,’ adds Mr & Mrs Smith co-founder Tamara Lohan.

With hedonism defined by what you’re escaping from, it’s clear that a world of over-stimulation, then, is leading younger consumers to embrace space, deceleration and reconnection. Where a champagne-fuelled evening of revelry provided young couples with excitement that was lacking in the mundane everyday of working urban life 15 years ago, as city living becomes increasingly visual, attention-grabbing and geared to excess, hedonism will be reframed as a pursuit of deceleration, re-introduction to nature and human connection away from screens.

This is just a snippet of the full Modern Love report. Click below to download the full report PDF.

READ THE FULL REPORT 

"Even across a broader base, we saw an increase in country bookings over city stays of almost 40% in 2019"
Tamara Lohan, co-founder, Mr & Mrs Smith

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