Sleep tourism set to be the biggest travel trend of 2024, Hilton report reveals

Grab your passport, sunglasses, and… pillow?

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

What convinces you to go on vacation? Is it a chance to discover new places? The thought of a few weeks spent soaking up the sun? Or are you part of the growing trend of people leaving theirbest mattressbehind and traveling with the aim of getting a good night’s sleep?

TheHilton Trend Report, a survey of over 10,000 travelers from nine countries, has found that the top reason people want to travel in 2024 is to ‘rest and recharge’. Sleep tourism – or the chance for a good night’s kip – is motivating people’s vacation choices, from what they pack to where they stay.

A good night’s rest drives travel choices

While the promise of a luxury hotel at the end of your journey might be enough to get you sleeping soundly, the Hilton report found travelers are taking relaxation into their own hands.

Because even the best hotels can’t promise quiet neighbors, 33 per cent of those surveyed listened to music or a podcast to help them sleep on vacation, while 22 per cent broke out the earplugs. Although, with 10 per cent of travelers taking their ownwhite noise machinewith them, perhaps it won’t be long before in-room noise machines become standard.

And gone are the days you’d choose a hotel based on the pool, the restaurant, and the proximity to the local cultural sites. Nowadays, it’s all about the bed. Okay, not quite, but 27 per cent of survey respondents said “staying with a trusted brand with a consistently good mattress” was important if they were traveling to relax.

We’ve long praised the virtue of thehotel bed,as luxury hotels have a tendency to kit their room with thebest luxury mattresses. (You can actually purchase theSerta mattress used by Hilton hotelsfor your own home, and while it’s a premium bed, it’s cheaper than paying to spend every night in a Hilton.)

Beyond the mattress, 18 per cent admitted to bringing theirbest pillowwith them when they traveled. Discerning pillow packers should look out for a pillow menu – a fixture of five-star hotels – which features a selection of pillows for you to take your pick from.

Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.

Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.

In response to this survey, Hilton has teamed up with sleep science expert Dr Rebecca Robbins to create a series ofHilton sleep retreatshosted at theGrand Wailea’s Kilolani Spain Maui. While a vacation to Hawaii probably sounds restful enough to many of us, these retreats take relaxation one step further, aiming to provide an “all-encompassing journey into the science and practice of achieving a restful, restorative sleep”.

If you’re going to have to miss out on the Hilton sleep retreat, there are still ways to improve your sleep when you travel. Avoid thefirst-night effectwith our guide to sleeping better on the go, and consider investing in somewhite noise for sleep, to prevent other guests from disturbing your slumber. Finally, choose a light-blockingsleep mask, and you won’t know where you’re falling asleep – maybe you’re in Maui after all.

Ruth is TechRadar’s Sleep Writer. She’s here to help you find the perfect sleep setup for your budget and personal preferences. As well as keeping a keen eye on everything that’s going on in the world of mattresses, she regularly speaks to experts to help you learn how to improve your sleep habits, whether that’s by debunking sleep myths or explaining the science behind it all. Prior to joining the TechRadar team, she wrote features and product guides for new parents hoping to get a decent night’s sleep, as well as writing for a variety of online spaces.

Exclusive deal: Get $70 off when you spend $700 at Emma with our coupon code

This new temperature-regulating, snore-detecting mattress cover definitely wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card

Lego will let you build Sir Ernest Shackleton’s iconic lost ship, the Endurance, in its next Icons set