| Travel trends, national parks reservations and more | | | Ready to plan your next getaway? These 2025 travel trends may be just the ticket to help. If you're headed to a U.S. national park or monument, check before you go: reservations may be required. You may want to reserve a room at one of the new and unique hotels that have sprouted up in the Southern region. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines has a new AI chatbot at your service. | | |  | | | Beyond the bucket list: How we’ll travel in 2025 | | | Dark winter days are prime time to plan your next getaway. Expedia’s travel trends for 2025 report used booking data from its site, Hotels.com and Vrbo, along with with insights from 25,000 global travelers, to predict the evolving preferences of modern adventurers. “I’ve been tracking travel trends for eight years and this year, more than ever before, is about experiences as much as places,” Melanie Fish, chief trend tracker for Expedia Brands, told Travel and Leisure. Here are these five trends from its report: - All-inclusive renaissance
- 'Set-jetting’ holds strong
| | |  | | | Before you go: The complete list of national parks that require reservations in 2025 | | | Some of the country’s most popular national parks and monuments will require reservations to visit this year. Continuing a practice put in place in recent years to control overcrowding, the NPS.gov website has identified 17 national parks for which reservations will be needed in 2025. Several well-known and popular national parks are included among those requiring advance booking, such as Acadia National Park, Arches National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. New York’s Statue of Liberty is also among the parks that will require reservations over the coming 12 months, as is the Washington Monument. The reservation system involves providing visitors with a timed entry to the park, which must be reserved in advance. For the most popular parks, reservations often need to be made months in advance. Specific requirements however, vary by park. Click here for more on top hot spots requiring reservations | | |  | | | 6 new Southeastern hotels worth a special trip | | Hotels seem to be sprouting up as quick as kudzu at major interchanges all around the South these days, but for a unique experience consider staying in a revitalized building steeped in history or a newly constructed concept property. From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Big Easy and in college towns and mid-sized cities in between, here are six hotels and motels around the region worthy of consideration for your travels in 2025. - The Riding Academy Hotel
- Graduate by Hilton Auburn, Alabama
- Rhode’s Motor Lodge
- The Ansonborough
- City Mills Hotel
- Dew Drop Inn
Want to know more? Click here | | | | Meet your newest AI chatbot: Delta Concierge | | |  | | Delta Air Lines will become the latest company to launch a generative AI chatbot this year: Delta Concierge. It’s one component of the Atlanta company’s ongoing strategy to improve and personalize customer experience that CEO Ed Bastian presented at the CES tech conference earlier this month, marking the airline’s centennial year with a splashy keynote at Las Vegas’ Sphere.
“Technology is transforming the way we travel, with AI at the forefront,” Bastian told a packed house. Delta Concierge will start small this year with “brass tacks things that we know people struggle with” like reminders about passport expiration and visa requirements, but the possibilities are immense, predicts Ranjan Goswami, senior vice president of customer experience design. For more about Delta's AI plans, click here | | | |
