To misquote Taylor Swift, January slipped away like a bottle of wine – I spent a lot of time on radio and podcasts, chatting about the travel trends of 2026.

My big takeaways;

Egypt: A radio announcer said while he was introducing me that no-one is going to the Middle East right now. Hello, Egypt? With the Grand Egyptian Museum finally, fully opening in late 2025, all that pent-up demand for Egypt has broken, like the Nile in flood. New Nile cruisers of all persuasions, from petite luxury to giants jostling for space at the docks – it’s all happening this high season.

Every  tour company scared off by the disaster happening next door as Israel continues to bomb a population of old men, women and children into oblivion has, of course severely (and deliberately) damaged the tourism industry in the region over the past two years, but with ‘ceasefires’ and the like broken, Egypt is working on a new normal.

Central Asia: Uzbekistan is the ultimate dinner party brag destination right now, and this trend is only going to grow, with all the five ‘stans, including deeply weird Turkmenistan, getting more tourists, more trains and infrastructure as we come for the plov and the turquoise mosques , madrassas and public squares.

Japan: More than a million Australians a year are heading to Japan, it’s not stopping any time soon.  Cherry season, ski season, summer, winter – it’s an all-rounder.

Australia still loves Bali as hard as ever, Paris still the top city for visitors, Italy hot as ever while we chase our euro-summer… Canada and Mexico will benefit from the 2026  FIFA matches – it remains to be seen what happens with the third host country, the US, given a high proportion of attendees will not be US citizens. That’s just me slipping the boot in here.

I could go on, or you could simply tap into some of the radio interviews I’ve done recently for ABC Adelaide, ABC nationwide summer, 3GB…

I also had a fun chat with Rory McLaren on ABC Adelaide about travel experiences you can’t have these days – think climbing Uluru (thankfully, because this sacred rock and icon of Australia doesn’t need any more poo on it), inflight cockpit visits (mourning this one) and smoking on trains/flights/most places.  Any you’d like to add? I’d love to hear in the comments below.v

Take a listen: https://soundcloud.com/user-367644299/abc-adelaide-radio-lost-travel 

In the meantime, travel well!