New insights launched by international journey big Amadeus reveal findings related to anybody operating an lodging property proper now.
Amadeus surveyed 6000 leisure and enterprise travellers globally — together with a devoted Australian cohort — plus 500 senior hoteliers worldwide (50 from Australia) for its new analysis paper, Journey Desires 2026: From information to please.
Based mostly on the paper’s findings, HM spoke with Amadeus Regional Vice President, Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific, Nicole Dobson, to unpack what Australian travellers will prioritise this 12 months.
Inform us how resort operators ought to seize the rise of “wellness journey”?
The Amadeus Journey Desires 2026 information makes it very clear: wellness is now not a spa add-on, it’s the core purpose many Australians journey within the first place. Almost half — 45% — of Australian travellers surveyed need to return dwelling with a calmer nervous system, and 30% describe their supreme vacation spot as someplace that naturally pulls them away from their telephone. That alone tells us one thing concerning the frame of mind Australians are travelling with proper now.
For resort operators, the chance is to reframe what “wellness” means at a property degree. It doesn’t require a six-star spa or a $50 million fit-out. It begins with intent — designing areas, programming, and repair touchpoints that genuinely assist company decompress. Assume quiet zones, digital-detox flooring insurance policies, morning mindfulness classes, domestically sourced menus, and nature-connected experiences.
The brand new accommodations main this area in Australia perceive this intuitively. Monarto Safari Park’s new resort close to Adelaide, for instance, includes a world-class spa, thermal plunge pool, ice tub, sauna, and a number of out of doors swimming pools— a full wellness ecosystem. Elysium Noosa Resort has taken a equally deliberate strategy, with devoted wellness suites that includes infrared saunas and even a concierge targeted particularly on company’ health objectives
The broader wellness tourism motion can also be being pushed by Australia’s quickly rising bathhouse and thermal spa tradition. Demand for bathhouse tradition in Australia is signalling a shift from solitary, treatment-based experiences to social and immersive wellness rituals — masking all the pieces from magnesium swimming pools and sizzling saunas to chilly plunges and holistic therapies. Resort operators who can convey this power inside their property partitions, or accomplice with close by wellness venues, will win the company in search of a psychological reset.
The paper reveals greater than half of Australian company prepared to pay a premium for wellness add-ons like ice baths, saunas and in-room health, how can accommodations higher implement this?
That is the place the Journey Desires 2026 information will get notably thrilling for operators and buyers. The report exhibits 57% of Australian company would pay further for an ice tub or cell sauna, and 58% would pay further for in-room health gear. This isn’t aspiration, it alerts shopping for intent, and we expect hoteliers must be constructing income methods round it.
The sensible implementation comes down to a couple ideas. First, begin with what you’ll be able to deploy rapidly. Transportable sauna pods, chilly plunge items, and compact in-room health kits are getting more and more modular and comparatively low-cost in comparison with full-scale structural renovations. These will be trialled throughout a handful of rooms or on a devoted wellness flooring earlier than scaling. The secret’s merchandising them accurately — surfacing these choices on the level of reserving, throughout pre-arrival communications with company, and thru cell check-in flows, reasonably than burying them in an in-room facilities information.
Second, take into consideration attribute-based promoting. The report identifies “sleep optimisation packages” — premium bedding, white noise gadgets, aromatherapy — as producing as much as $342,000 yearly for a mid-scale 150-room resort operating at 70% occupancy. That’s earlier than you layer in air high quality rooms, native expertise kits, and early check-in. The buyer base is confirmed; it simply wants accommodations to fulfill it with the correct product.
Third, leverage information to focus on the correct company. Gen Z globally present a willingness to pay for sleep optimisation packages. Households and bleisure travellers reply in another way to wellness messaging than solo company company. Realizing your segments and tailoring the supply accordingly — reasonably than broadcasting a generic “spa package deal” — is what separates a revenue-generating programme from one which will get ignored.
Talk about the report’s findings on AI funding from a resort proprietor or investor’s perspective?
From an funding standpoint, the AI findings in Journey Desires 2026 ought to get the eye of each resort proprietor and investor in Australia. Globally, a rare 499 out of 500 hoteliers globally plan to put money into AI this 12 months, spending a median of US$319,000 per property. That may be a strategic dedication and the aggressive hole between properties that deploy AI effectively and people who don’t will solely widen.
For resort homeowners, the ROI case is multi-layered. Essentially the most instant returns come from income administration — AI-powered dynamic pricing and competitor fee intelligence are already being utilized by 40% of surveyed hoteliers. Occupancy and labour scheduling forecasting, cited by 38% of hoteliers, is equally compelling from a value administration standpoint — optimising labour spend towards actual demand alerts might enhance EBITDA, notably related in Australia’s tight labour market.
Trying barely additional forward, AI’s function in personalisation is the place the compounding worth will get very fascinating. A resort that is aware of a visitor prefers a excessive flooring, an early check-out, a plant-based breakfast, and silence after 10pm — and may act on that information throughout each touchpoint — constructing loyalty in a manner that no loyalty programme can replicate.
The necessary caveat for Australian operators is that AI must be working within the background, not changing the human contact company nonetheless clearly worth. The information exhibits that throughout room service, check-in, concierge, and housekeeping requests, a majority of travellers nonetheless need folks, not robots. The successful system is AI dealing with the intelligence — pricing, forecasting, personalisation — whereas employees deal with the heat.
Inform us about AI-generated search summaries and what sensible steps ought to hoteliers take to seize this viewers?
That is probably probably the most pressing advertising and marketing shift occurring in hospitality proper now, and it’s one which many Australian properties are nonetheless making ready for. The Journey Desires 2026 information reveals that 59% of Australian travellers rely solely on AI-generated search summaries — they’re not clicking by way of to a number of web sites, studying opinions intimately, or evaluating OTA listings within the conventional manner. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, or Perplexity one thing like “finest boutique resort within the Mornington Peninsula with a wellness focus” and reserving from the handful of properties that seem within the reply.
If conventional website positioning is about rating in search outcomes, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is about incomes visibility inside AI-generated solutions. For hoteliers, it means ensuring your property exhibits up when a visitor asks one thing very particular resembling ‘Finest household accommodations near [event] this weekend’.
With Gartner reporting that conventional search engine volumes will drop 25% by 2026, GEO is changing into important to spice up a model’s visibility on this new period of search.
Getting discovered by AI-generated search instruments comes down to creating your property simple for AI to know and belief. That begins together with your resort’s web site — is it structured with clear headings, FAQ sections, and pure conversational language that mirrors how your company really ask questions?
On the identical time, it pays to maintain your Google enterprise profile clear — constant title, handle and telephone quantity throughout each itemizing and media commercial. These are the foundational alerts that AI platforms draw from when deciding which properties to suggest.
The second layer is status and authority. AI instruments don’t simply learn your individual web site — they synthesise what the broader web says about you. Which means incomes mentions in trusted media journey publications, native directories, and curated “better of” lists is now as strategically necessary as any paid marketing campaign.
It additionally means managing your opinions actively. With 88% of Australian travellers saying opinions affect the place they keep, a sample of unaddressed damaging suggestions doesn’t simply damage your TripAdvisor rating — it alerts to the AI agent that your property will not be value surfacing in any respect. Hoteliers should reply, resolve and earn the form of genuine visitor endorsements that may make an AI agent need to suggest you.
Sustainability continues to affect reserving choices, how can resort homeowners and buyers higher faucet into the next ROI from sustainability choices?
The monetary case for sustainability in Australian hospitality is obvious because the Journey Desires 2026 information places actual numbers behind it. 68% of Australian travellers say sustainability credentials affect their resort selection, and those that worth sustainability are prepared to pay a median 9.8% premium per evening. Scale that throughout a full 12 months of bookings and the income influence will be important.
Globally, each single hotelier surveyed by Amadeus is planning sustainability funding in 2026, averaging 6.7% of complete enterprise expenditure. That’s a transparent sign that that is now an operational mainstream, not a advertising and marketing examine field.
For homeowners and buyers, the bottom line is shifting from “behind the scenes” sustainability — which is necessary however invisible to company — towards experiential, seen eco-practices that company can really feel and speak about. The report is direct on this level: company more and more count on sustainability to be embedded into the keep itself, not simply disclosed in a CSR report.
The chance hole proper now could be for mid-market and regional Australian properties to maneuver quicker. Boutique eco-leaders like 1 Resort Melbourne — constructed utilizing recycled supplies, draped in native greenery, with domestically sourced sustainable linen and non-toxic natural mattresses are displaying that sustainability and luxurious are usually not in battle. The properties that construct these credentials now, whereas the aggressive area continues to be catching up, will maintain a sturdy benefit because the market matures.
