GetYourGuide Travelers Now Plan Trips Around Food First

The meal is the destination now. Data published by the travel experiences platform GetYourGuide on November 12, 2026, found that 82 percent of British travelers would travel specifically for regional food experiences, with eating and drinking ranked ahead of cultural and historical sightseeing as the reason for a trip. The company calls the pattern biteseeing: itineraries built around food first, with landmarks fitted in around the reservations.

The bookings back the survey up. Food experience bookings on GetYourGuide's platform grew 47 percent year over year, while bookings for cultural and historical sites grew 16 percent. These aren't only restaurant tables. The category covers truffle hunts in Piemonte, olive oil harvests in Tuscany and cooking classes in local chefs' homes, and it's those hands-on formats that are pulling the growth. A landmark takes seconds to photograph. A harvest takes a morning, and it can't be done from a tour bus.

Two ingredients are doing outsized work. Forty-seven percent of the British travelers surveyed said they'd travel for a truffle experience, with Piemonte in northern Italy and Istria in Croatia the leading destinations, and 50 percent said they'd travel for olive oil, led by Tuscany and Istria again. The 2026 Food Travel Monitor, cited alongside the platform's research, finds three-quarters of tourists now count as culinary travelers and scores the importance of food and drink on a trip at 8.2 out of 10, the highest it has recorded.

Researchers who study tourism see a structural shift, not a fad menu. Michael O'Regan of Glasgow Caledonian University ties the rise to the experience economy: food has to be tasted, shared and often learned, and social media rewards exactly that. Culinary guide Christy Palma, who runs Tuscany Flavor, puts the premium in one line: authenticity is becoming the new luxury. Travelers don't just want the meal anymore. They want the grove in the morning, the pressing at noon and the oil on the table that afternoon.

The backdrop is a record year with slower momentum. The WTM Global Travel Report 2026, produced with Tourism Economics and released at World Travel Market in London on November 3 to 5, forecasts 1.57 billion international overnight arrivals in 2026 and visitor spending up 6 percent to $1.8 trillion, even as arrival growth cools to 2 percent. In the same report, 61 percent of travelers across all age groups said they're very interested in sampling local food and drink on their trips.

For travelers, the practical effect is a planning order turned upside down. The restaurant shortlist comes first, the neighborhood follows from it, and the famous sight gets whatever time is left. That order used to belong to food writers and chefs on research trips. The booking data says it's now how most people build a holiday, and the platforms selling the experiences have noticed.