Travellers aren’t simply looking for somewhere to go. Our research has found that increasingly they are looking for somewhere that means something to them – somewhere connected to who they are, where they come from and the stories that shaped them.
It’s called ancestry travel and it’s no longer a niche area of tourism.
Why travellers are going back to their roots
The bigger forces driving ancestry travel aren’t hard to spot. Travellers have been slowly changing how they like to travel for a while.
Skyscanners 2026 Travel Trends report found that trips are being increasingly built with a purpose. They want a trip that mirrors their passions, interests and gives them a sense of purpose. Travellers no longer start by choosing their destination, they first think about what they want to do and then research the best place to do it.
Tripadvisor coined 2026 as the year of meaningful experiences in their Trendcast. Heritage tours were one of the standout growth categories in their booking data, up 40% year on year.
Viator’s Travel Trends release echoes this too. They noted that cultural, historical and heritage tours have remained their most popular experience category. Travellers are increasingly seeking immersive experiences that connect them to human stories and traditions of a destination.
The numbers behind the ancestry travel trend
Search demand for “ancestry travel” has surged by 1,618% in the past twelve months. Searches for “DNA travel” are up 754% year on year.
And interest in specific experiences is growing even faster – “genealogy tours” are up 6,671%, and “family heritage tours” are at an all-time high increasing by 5,490%.
| Search term | Year-on-year growth |
| Genealogy tours | 6,671% |
| Family heritage tours | 5,490% |
| Family tree experiences | +336% |
| International heritage tours | +325% |
| Heritage tours | +114% |
Google Search Data, accurate as of May 2026.
These aren’t small shifts. This is a change in what travellers are looking for – and it has real implications for how experience operators should position their products.
What’s driving this trend
The rise of at-home DNA testing, combined with a broader shift towards more intentional, identity-led travel, has created the perfect environment for the trend to take off.
Travellers want more than sightseeing. They want storytelling, self-discovery, culture, connection and an authentic experience. Ancestry travel delivers all of this and more – it takes family history and turns it into an experience that stops travellers from scrolling and start booking.
What this means for operators
Here’s the good news – you don’t need to build something from scratch, a few tweaks to current offerings could increase awareness and conversions of your experiences.
The opportunity is to reframe and reposition your experiences through a cultural, heritage and ancestry lens.
Here are a few examples:
Reframe existing walking tours as heritage trails. The streets, buildings and landmarks your current walking tour encompasses all have heritage stories. Lean it to that. Let travellers discover the history with stories of the communities that lived there. Let them imagine walking the same paths their ancestors would.
Develop food experiences around local culinary traditions. Cooking classes are consistently one of the most booked experiences and rooting your experience in traditional recipes and techniques appeals to a wider demographic. Food can be one of the most powerful connections to culture and ancestry.
Run history tours that focus on the stories of real people and communities. Go beyond the stories we already know into the heart of the community. Uncover what life would have been like for normal people, their routines, their traditions, their communities.
Travellers are searching for authentic stories that uncover their ancestry. Make sure your experiences are ready to be found.
Want to make sure you are ready to capture new trends? Bókun is the complete booking and channel management solution for extraordinary experiences. Start your growth journey now!