Fandom, Not Price, Is Shaping the Next Wave of Travel Demand
Why belief-driven behaviour is becoming travel’s strongest demand signal
[6 Min Read]
For years, travel demand has been explained through price, timing and convenience. Destinations competed for access. Airlines optimised routes. Experiences were treated as add-ons.
That model is no longer enough.
A growing share of travellers are not choosing where to go based on deals or distance. They are choosing what they care about, then organising everything else around it.
New research from Arival confirms what many operators, investors and platforms are starting to see in real-time: fandom is becoming one of the strongest drivers of travel intent, especially among younger audiences. This shift is not about preference. It is about commitment.
The Signal: Travel Decisions Are Forming Around Meaning
Arival’s The Event-Driven Traveler report shows that travellers are no longer attending events as part of a trip. They are building entire trips around a single moment that matters to them.
The data makes this clear:
71% of US sports attendees aged 18–34 identify as high-level fans
62% of performing arts fans in the same group say the same
In Europe, 50% of 18–34-year-olds report high fandom levels
This is not a casual interest. It is allegiance.
With major global events approaching, from the World Cup to the 2026 Winter Olympics and large-scale music tours, this behaviour is accelerating. But the deeper shift is not about the event calendar.
It is about how people decide what is worth their time and money.
What the Data Shows About Fandom-Led Travel
Event-driven travellers behave differently from traditional leisure travellers:
Sports fans spend more and book earlier, often securing event tickets before flights or accommodation
Over half of travellers book tickets within a week of the event
Social media is the primary discovery channel, led by TikTok and Instagram
Emotional intensity plays a central role. More than 60% of younger US travellers describe themselves as highly committed to the sport or artist they travelled to see.
That commitment has direct financial consequences. Fans are willing to pay premium prices for tickets, travel and experiences. In some cases, they are even willing to borrow to fund them, with buy-now-pay-later now as common as overdrafts among younger UK adults.
“Fandom is a powerful driver of travel intent. Travellers are prioritizing what they love, and they’re willing to spend significantly to experience it live.”
Why Price-Led Models Are Falling Short
Traditional travel analytics are built around transactions. They explain what was booked and when. They struggle to explain why demand appears when it does.
Fandom does not show up first in booking data. It forms earlier, spreads socially and intensifies through communities, content and shared identity. By the time it appears in ticket sales or hotel searches, the most valuable insight has already passed.
This is why demand around certain events, artists, or teams often looks sudden. The signal was there long before the booking, just not where most systems were looking.
The FandomIQ Lens: Fandom as Early Demand Infrastructure
At FandomIQ™️, we view fandom as a system of belief that organises behaviour.
Fans do not simply attend experiences. They align time, money and identity around them. That makes fandom one of the earliest indicators of future demand.
In travel, the sequence increasingly looks like this:
Fandom forms
Intent follows
Transactions confirm
Most organisations only see the third step.
AI makes it possible to detect fandom earlier by analysing behaviour across platforms, communities and cultural signals. That insight allows destinations, experience creators, and investors to anticipate demand, price more intelligently,and design offers that resonate emotionally rather than generically.
Looking Ahead
The next phase of travel will be shaped less by geography and more by moments of meaning.
Events like Arival 360 Valencia in April 2026, which will explore the intersection of food, fandom and live experiences, reflect how quickly this thinking is moving into the mainstream.
The question is no longer whether fandom drives travel demand. It’s whether organisations can see it early enough to act.
Final Thought
Fandom is not noise in the system. It is the signal before demand becomes visible. We are already seeing parts of this future emerge.
Travel and experience brands are increasingly using AI and data to curate journeys around people’s sporting, music and cultural passions. Major tournaments and tours are becoming anchors for personalised travel, not just destinations on a map.
Around the 2026 FIFA World Cup, travel platforms are experimenting with dynamic itineraries that adapt to match schedules, team progress and fan behaviour in real-time. For the Winter Olympic Games, hospitality groups are layering athlete followings, national pride, and event preferences into bespoke experiences that shift as competitions unfold.
Music-led travel is following the same path. Large-scale tours, from legacy acts such as Oasis to global pop stars, are now anchoring travel decisions and driving bundled experiences that combine tickets, accommodation and local culture. Fans travelling for reunions and comeback tours are not behaving like casual concertgoers. They are emotionally invested participants whose preferences and intent form long before the first note is played.
Today, most of these journeys are still mediated through legacy global ticketing/event and travel platforms such as Live Nation, Expedia, Airbnb and Booking.com. These platforms rely heavily on dynamic pricing models that optimise yield in real time, often reacting to visible demand rather than anticipating it. While effective for revenue, this approach has also become a point of friction for fans, who experience price volatility without feeling understood or valued.
This tension highlights a broader gap: pricing systems are optimised for demand, not for fandom.
Sporting clubs and leagues are also moving in this direction. From football clubs (Manchester United, Wrexham etc..) with global fan bases to the NFL and NBA expanding across Europe, data is increasingly used to understand which fans will travel, how far, and for what kind of experience. In some cases, this extends to club-led travel experiences that turn allegiance into multi-day journeys, not just matchday attendance.
What is still missing is precision.
Most of these efforts rely on surface-level signals: past purchases, stated interests, or broad demographic assumptions. Few truly understand how committed a fan is, or how that level of commitment shapes willingness to travel, spend and plan early.
This is where fandom intelligence changes the equation.
If fandom and fanness scores were applied consistently, travel and experience brands could move from reactive personalisation to predictive design. They could see which moments will matter most, which fans will travel first, and where demand will peak before it becomes obvious in bookings or prices.
Those who learn to read fandom properly will not just respond to travel demand.
They will help shape where it flows next.
If you want to explore how fandom intelligence can inform travel strategy, experience design, or investment decisions, we should talk.
Talk to us about AI-powered fandom intelligence & data