The Boomer Travel Inspiration Trend Younger Generations Are Embracing Again

In an era where more and more magazines are either going strictly digital or closing up shop all together, there's one corner of the media world where print is still very much relevant: travel magazines and brochures. In fact, these tangible items that were once the travel inspiration trend for boomers are now being embraced by younger generations. There was a bump in travel print and digital subscriptions during the coronavirus pandemic, with magazines like Afar and Bon Appetit seeing a 43% and 32.6% increase respectively, and the upward trend for travel magazines has continued since then.

"People will have this in their hands, on their coffee table," founder and publisher of Adventure Journal, Stephen Casimiro, told The New York Times while admiring the pages of his high-end travel magazine. "That was the idea. We're all exhausted from our screens. We want something to savor." The niche publication is intended as something readers would keep, rather than flip through and throw out. As Casimiro explained, screen experiences are reductive. "It just flattens the world, so that a Pulitzer Prize-winning story feels the same as spam. Some things deserve better."

Travel magazines often have a better idea of who their audience is and what they want, as opposed to magazines that are less niche. For example, some travel magazines focus on the importance of sustainable tourism, while others assemble articles and information for people who are only interested in luxury travel experiences. When you know who you're writing for and curate your printed material specifically for them, it's only natural that people want to get their hands on it — literally.

When Serena Guen, founder of Suitcase magazine, realized she wanted to launch a travel magazine for millennials, her research into what people were looking for led her toward print. "We interviewed 500 people and 98% said they wanted print," Guen told Appear Here in June 2018. "Planning and booking travel is so complicated (the average person goes on 25 different websites) so they want to have the research given to them as a physical product." Although Guen's magazine, which was first published in 2012, was originally geared toward millennials, so they would know the best cities for them, Gen Z is also getting on board with print because of the intimacy and intention that comes with buying something tangible.

But it's not just about holding something in your hand or the curated content. Travel magazines both provide a form of escapism (hence the increase during the pandemic) and inspire people to add the world's best destinations to their travel bucket list. There's also something very personal about it. When you subscribe to a travel magazine, you begin a relationship with it. You look forward to its arrival and its content becomes reliable and trusted. When you know something has been written and published specifically for you and like-minded individuals, it's no longer just a magazine, but an experience every time you read it. It also provides a sense of community: If you see someone on the metro reading the same travel magazine you like, you feel connected. Heck, you might even plan a trip with them.