Over the Last Decade, Tripadvisor, Travel + Leisure & Lonely Planet Focus Attention Closer to Home
Globetrotting may not be the future for trendy US travelers. North American destinations have seen a surge in popularity from top travel guides Tripadvisor, Travel + Leisure and Lonely Planet. Over the last decade, these trusted sources have increasingly turned their attention to the Western Hemisphere. Vacation spots in Canada, the United States and Mexico benefit from growth strategy marketing, with nearly 20% more recommendations from 2015 to 2025.
Removing the duplicate recommendations from years’ past shows an even bigger shift. Here’s a comparison chart of the different destinations featured by my three sources. In 2025, unique North American travel spots more than doubled, from 16 to 41. In 2015, it turns out almost all travel guides recommended NYC and Washington D.C. Today, their editors are casting a broader look at the geography.
| Featured North American Destinations Now | Featured North American Destinations a Decade Ago |
| Charleston, SC Anchorage, AK Apostle Islands, WI Brooklyn, NY Charleston, SC Chicago, IL Cleveland, OH Colorado’s Western Slope Costalegre, Mexico Deer Valley, UT Denver, CO Detroit, MI Edmonton, Alberta Florida Keys, FL Hilton Head, SC Juneau, AK Kansas City, MO Las Vegas, NV Lowcountry, SC and GA Memphis, TN Mount Hood and Columbia River Gorge Nashville, TN New Orleans, LA New York City, NY Nova Scotia, Canada O’ahu, HI Park City, UT Pittsburgh, PA Portland, OR Sacramento, CA San Antonio, TX San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Sanibel Island, FL Santa Barbara, CA Santa Monica, CA Universal Orlando Epic Universe Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico Washington, D.C. West Palm Beach, FL Yukon, Canada | Albuquerque, NM Big Sur, CA Boise, ID Copper Canyon, Mexico Edmonton, Alberta Greenville, SC Los Cabos, Mexico Mexico City, Mexico New Orleans, LA New York City, U.S.A. Rocky Mountain National Park, USA San Antonio, TX The Berkshires, MA Toronto, Canada Walla Walla Valley, Washington Washington, D.C. |
For Travel + Leisure, a North American destination even made the list for Top Destinations for Adventurous Travelers, Universal Studio’s new Epic Universe in Orlando (although, I wonder if that was a feat of Universal’s PR team). For growth strategy marketing travel trends, I identified three areas that appear to have seen an increase in organic interest…
