Digital detox travel and the power of place to pull us off screens

We live in a fascinating, contradictory moment where two large consumer macrotrends coexist permanently: hyperconnectivity (the URL world) and the pressing need to inhabit the analog and real life (IRL). Paradoxically, the more screens and devices invade daily life, the more urgently we want to connect genuinely with our physical surroundings, with nature and with the people around us.

For the travel industry, this macrotrend is an invaluable opportunity. Our environment conditions us deeply and shapes who we are and how we behave. That is why escaping the city for remote places without internet access has become the most effective way to truly disconnect the mind.

Hilton's 2025 trends report found that more than a quarter of travelers want to cut their social media use during vacations, and luxury rental platform Plum Guide saw a 17% increase in searches for "offline" stays (Detour, citing Hilton and Plum Guide, 2025).

On the family side, rest is gaining ground over activity: 56% of global travelers say resting and recharging is their main motivation to travel, and more than half of parents and grandparents set screen-free windows during family trips to keep everyone present.

84% say that this year they will actively look for opportunities for the whole family to play without devices (Food Drink Life, 2026).

And this can already be measured in dollars. The global digital detox tourism market reached USD 1.42 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 8.6% between 2025 and 2033, reaching close to USD 2.93 billion (Dataintelo, 2025).

Destinations immersed in nature, such as Patagonia, offer the perfect setting for that deep rest: travelers can empty their minds, hear a glacier calve or the wind blow, and sleep after a long day of trekking or sport. The essential ingredients for designing these restorative experiences are clear: nature, physical activity and a remote environment that invites a pause.

Real luxury today is no longer the fastest connection in the hotel room, but finding refuges that let us step out of the daily grind, pick up pen and paper, and take the time to reflect and reconnect with what matters.

The Global Wellness Summit has been naming a wellness trend every year, and the 2025 pick was "Analog Wellness". Their definition is simple: the era in which more people become active about switching the phone off, not only in daily life but also when they travel (Global Wellness Summit, 2025).

Day to day, we are exposed to a relentless avalanche of stimuli that tends to generate anxiety and stress: the endless news cycle, social media, a never-ending stream of new tools and constant alerts. For many, simply having the phone within reach acts as a trigger that interrupts focus, limits deep work and steals peace of mind. Biology is clear about this sedentary, digitized lifestyle: humans are social creatures designed to move outdoors, not to spend our days in front of a monitor.

The feeling is generational. A Harris Poll survey for Quad, from February 2025, found that 81% of Gen Z adults and 78% of adult millennials frequently wish they could unplug from digital devices more easily (Quad / The Harris Poll, 2025). Wanting to disconnect and managing to do it are different things, and that is the caveat of this trend. According to ExpressVPN data, 46% of Gen Z globally limit their screen time in some way, but only 17% do so most days or every day (via EMARKETER, 2025). Intention is running far ahead of habit.

As a direct response to this exhaustion, intentional disconnection emerges. Travelers and consumers are going back to basics and unplugging, valuing experiences such as reading printed books, using stationery, attending in-person events and even visiting cafés where phones are not allowed.

What to do with this

If you work in travel, hospitality or experience design, intentional disconnection is not an amenity or a marketing detail: it is a product in its own right, with concrete ingredients (nature, physical activity, a remote setting) and demand already measured in billions of dollars. It is not about removing the wifi, calling it innovation and moving on; it is about designing experiences with intent.

And if you work outside the industry, the lesson still applies: willpower alone will not get you to disconnect in daily life if you never designed the environment for it. The phone in another room does more than any new year's resolution.

When was the last time you left your phone somewhere else for more than an hour, without an emergency forcing you to?