Ask a 24-year-old and a 34-year-old where they are travelling this year, and you will get two very different answers.
According to travel experts at Adventure360, Gen Z and Millennials booking through the same company over the same 12 months are drawing two separate maps of the world, with only one country appearing near the top of both.
Adventure360 analysed a sample of more than 4,700 bookings made between 12th August 2025 and 12th August 2026 to uncover where each generation is actually travelling. Travellers were split into Gen Z and Millennials, and every country was measured by the share of bookings that included a visit.
Where Gen Z and Millennials travel: the top 10 countries
| Gen Z Rank | Country | % of Bookings | Millennial Rank | Country | % of Bookings |
| 1 | Thailand | 29.2% | 1 | Australia | 17.8% |
| 2 | Australia | 21.7% | 2 | Thailand | 17.4% |
| 3 | Indonesia | 11.1% | 3 | Philippines | 13.4% |
| 4 | Vietnam | 10.4% | 4 | Japan | 8.5% |
| 5 | Cambodia | 7.0% | 5 | Indonesia | 8.4% |
| 6 | Laos | 6.1% | 6 | Peru | 7.3% |
| 7 | Peru | 5.8% | 7 | Morocco | 6.5% |
| 8 | Philippines | 5.2% | 8 | Greece | 6.2% |
| 9 | New Zealand | 5.0% | 9 | Iceland | 6.2% |
| 10 | Morocco | 3.8% | 10 | Vietnam | 5.3% |
Thailand topped the Gen Z list, featuring in 29.2% of their bookings, the single highest figure recorded for either generation and by a wide margin. Among Millennials, it sat at 17.4%, in second place behind Australia.
Cambodia, Laos, and New Zealand stand out as the surprise of the study. All three rank inside the Gen Z top 10, and not one of them appears anywhere on the Millennial list. The gap runs just as cleanly in the other direction, with Japan, Greece, and Iceland all making the Millennial top 10, and none of them coming close to charting fo
Much of the pull towards Cambodia and Laos is visible online long before it reaches a trip purchase. Videos recreating the mobile game Temple Run through the corridors of Angkor Wat in Cambodia have passed two million views on individual clips. Koh Rong’s Long Beach in Cambodia was also ranked among the 10 best beaches in the world this year, with images consistently going viral. In Laos, the Kuang Si waterfalls are drawing millions of views, where “underrated” has become the most reliably used word in the captions.
The destinations generating the most views right now are the same ones climbing fastest in Gen Z’s booking data, suggesting itineraries are increasingly built around what’s trending.
Why the 2 generations are splitting apart
Looking across both top 10s, several trends stand out
- Thailand’s popularity with Gen Z comes down to affordability. It took 29.2% of Gen Z bookings against 17.4% of Millennial ones. Koh Tao is the cheapest place in the world to qualify as a scuba diver, at roughly £230–£280 for the same certification that costs £500–£750 in Europe or Australia.
- Cambodia and Laos are being booked deliberately now, rather than added on as an afterthought. TikTok is a big source of travel inspiration for Gen Z, and much of the content pulling in Cambodia bookings is built around the country’s low nightly rate, with creators sharing stays for as little as £16 per person a night.
- New Zealand’s place on the list comes down to the working holiday visa. British passport holders aged 18–35 can stay for up to 36 months, three times what most other nationalities get. It ranks ninth for Gen Z and does not feature for Millennials, most of whom have aged out.
- Gen Z are choosing the quieter option on purpose. According to Skyscanner, 76% are open to picking a lesser-known destination over a popular one, and 51% have actively planned a quieter trip because of crowding, with 1 in 3 saying crowds have already spoiled a holiday.
- Japan, Greece, and Iceland belong to the Millennials, and price is the dividing line. While 60% of UK-based Gen Zs expect to travel abroad more in 2026, only 45% plan to spend any more on flights to do it.
“Thailand has always been popular with younger travellers, but seeing it in nearly three out of every 10 Gen Z bookings really shows how central it has become to that first big trip.”
“What has surprised me most is Cambodia and Laos. 10 years ago, they were the countries people added on at the end if they had time left over. Now they are booked deliberately. In my experience, once a place starts appearing regularly on people’s feeds, the bookings follow within about a season. A lot of the drinking culture has evidently dropped off as well, and the group booking Laos is very rarely the group asking me about bar crawls.”
“Iceland and Japan are the two I get asked about most frequently by Millennial customers. A £5 coffee in Reykjavík is a hard sell for Gen Z when the same money covers a bed for the night in Vientiane, but Millennials are much happier to pay the price.”
“For anyone caught between the two lists, I would always recommend New Zealand, where British passport holders can stay for up to 36 months if you’re between 18 and 35 on a working holiday visa. As an extra tip, apply for that visa the day your scheme opens, because those 15,000 places do not hang around.”