For years, international travel sold itself on a simple promise: the world was open, broadly safe, and only getting easier.
Cheap flights. Faster borders. Better apps. A comforting sense that, whatever chaos flickered on the evening news, the average traveller would glide serenely above it at 38,000 feet.
That illusion, it seems, is finally wearing thin.
According to a new global survey by security specialists Global Rescue, travellers heading into 2026 are no longer convinced the world is becoming safer or even more predictable. In fact, many believe quite the opposite.
Not panicked. Not paralysed. But distinctly uneasy.
Nearly four in ten respondents expect international travel to become more dangerous next year. A similar share believes it will grow more unpredictable, a word that, in travel, tends to unsettle more than danger itself.
Only 1% think the world is now safer than before 2020.
If optimism is making a comeback, it has missed the departure gate.
The New Travel Anxiety
“Unpredictability is now the defining feature of international travel,” says Dan Richards, chief executive of Global Rescue and a member of the US Travel and Tourism Advisory Board. “And that has serious implications for preparedness and resilience.”
It is an elegantly bureaucratic way of saying something simpler: travellers no longer trust the ground beneath their itineraries.
The pandemic taught the world that borders can close overnight. Wars, elections, coups and crime waves have since reinforced the lesson. Flights still run. Hotels are still open. But certainty that the quiet, invisible companion of modern travel has packed its bags and left early.
What emerges from the survey is not fear so much as calculation.
Travellers are not cancelling their lives abroad. They are scrutinising them.
Men, Women and the Geography of Unease
The anxieties are not evenly distributed.
Men are more inclined to label the future outright as dangerous. Women are more likely to call it unpredictable, a subtle distinction, but a revealing one. Danger suggests known threats. Unpredictability suggests systems breaking down.
Geography matters too. Non-US travellers, more exposed to the patchwork realities of borders, visas and regional instability, are significantly more likely to expect uncertainty ahead. Americans, by contrast, are slightly more inclined to see the threat as danger itself.
In both cases, the underlying message is the same: confidence has thinned.
Yet this is not hysteria. Asked to rate their overall safety confidence on a ten-point scale, travellers cluster around three, mildly uneasy, not alarmed. The emotional tone is closer to wariness than worry.
The modern traveller, it seems, has learned to live with risk. What they no longer tolerate is surprise.
Crime, Kidnapping and a Sharper Awareness
Where the unease sharpens is around personal security.
More than 80 per cent of travellers express concern about risks such as violent crime, kidnapping and extortion. These are no longer viewed as remote dangers reserved for diplomats or journalists. They are now part of the mainstream travel conversation.
“Kidnapping and extortion are no longer seen as rare,” Richards notes. “Travellers understand these threats can affect leisure, business and adventure travel alike.”
This is a quiet but significant cultural shift.
Twenty years ago, travel risk meant lost luggage and pickpockets. Today, it means geopolitical flashpoints, organised crime and social unrest. Travel insurance brochures now read like abridged intelligence briefings.
Women report slightly higher levels of concern. Men are more likely to say they are not worried at all, though history suggests confidence and invulnerability are not the same thing.
Destinations Under Re-Evaluation
If risk is being recalibrated, destinations are being filtered.
Israel and neighbouring states now sit firmly in the too-hard basket for most travellers. Nearly two-thirds say they will avoid the region altogether, regardless of improvements in security. Only five per cent would travel as planned.
Mexico produces a more nuanced response. A quarter would avoid it outright. More than a third would go selectively, choosing regions carefully and adding precautions. Almost as many say they are simply uninterested, risk aside.
Colombia faces similar caution. More than a third will not go at all. 42% say it is not on their agenda, full stop.
The pattern is revealing. Travellers are not abandoning international travel. They are stratifying it.
Low-risk destinations will benefit. High-risk destinations will not vanish, but they will compete in a narrower, more informed market.
The Industry Adjusts
For airlines, insurers and tour operators, this matters.
Routes are planned years in advance. Capacity follows confidence. Where travellers hesitate, pricing weakens. Where confidence returns, fares rise.
Security services are expanding. Advisory products once aimed at corporates are being repackaged for affluent leisure travellers. Travel insurance is quietly becoming more expensive and more complicated.
Travel in 2026 will not be about bravado. It will be about preparation.
“Those who plan properly and secure professional support will travel best,” Richards says.
It is advice that neatly captures the new era.
The golden age of carefree travel may be over. In its place comes something more deliberate: slower planning, sharper awareness, narrower destination lists.
But not retreat.
Because beneath the caution lies something else entirely.
Travellers are not losing their appetite for the world. They are simply insisting on understanding it better before they board.
And in a time when certainty is rare, that may be the smartest evolution of travel yet.
by Jill Walsh – (c) 2026.
Read Time: 5 minutes.
About the Writer.
Jill Walsh has always had a pen within reach and a suitcase not far behind. She cut her teeth on media releases, then honed her craft shepherding press trips across half the globe, learning which stories travel well and which need a firmer edit.
In time, she wasn’t merely promoting places; she was representing them, translating civic ambition and local pride into words people wanted to read. Semi-retired now, Jill has swapped departure boards for deadlines, joining long-time colleague and friend Stephen at Global Travel Media on a casual basis.
Her beat is the business end of wanderlust: balance sheets, route maps, tender wins, the quiet numbers that decide where travellers actually go. She writes with tidy prose, dry humour and an old-school respect for facts, giving readers clarity without the clutter. In short, Jill brings seasoned judgement to travel’s moving parts and a steady voice when the market gets noisy.
