The Experience Resorts · Industry perspective
When the Event Becomes the Holiday: Why Live Experiences Drive Travel
By The Experience Resorts
Sometimes, the holiday starts with an announcement: a festival lineup, a favorite performer or an event you want to experience with friends. The dates go into the calendar. Then come the flights, the rooms and the plans to make a few days of it.
Research released by Allianz Partners in June 2026 captures that relationship between entertainment and travel. For established event producers, it offers a useful perspective on what their audiences may be looking for beyond the ticket.
The event is a reason to make the journey
According to Allianz Partners’ 2026 Global Travel Confidence Index, conducted by Ipsos, 57% of American travelers said they were likely to attend a ticketed concert, festival or performing arts event while traveling that summer. For 38%, attending a ticketed event was the primary purpose of the trip.
Younger travelers showed particularly strong interest. Nearly two-thirds of Gen Z travelers, 65%, and millennials, 63%, planned to attend live entertainment while traveling. Among Gen Z travelers, 52% said a ticketed event was the main reason for their summer trip.
These findings describe plans reported ahead of summer, rather than completed trips. Even so, they show why event producers have an important role in destination travel: the experience they create can be the reason people decide to go.
Planning for the whole holiday
When an event motivates a trip, the guest’s experience begins well before the first performance. Choosing accommodation, coordinating with friends and deciding where to eat all become part of the planning.
That gives producers an opportunity to think beyond the program. What would make the journey easier to arrange? How can guests spend more time together? What could turn the days around the event into a holiday worth taking?
A destination edition of an established event can make room for those possibilities. Performances can sit alongside shared meals, relaxed afternoons and time to enjoy the setting. The event remains at the heart of the trip, with hospitality supporting the experience around it.
A destination built around your audience
At The Experience Resorts, this is the thinking behind our planned resort in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Our concept brings accommodation, dining and event infrastructure together around established events and their communities.
Festival All-Inclusive is designed to connect food, beverages and event programming within a shared resort stay. Our planned week-long format gives partners room to create a fuller experience around the program their audience already loves.
The Allianz findings offer a clear reason to explore that approach. People are willing to plan travel around experiences that matter to them. For producers, the opportunity is to make the whole holiday feel worthy of that enthusiasm.