How Langston combined Travel and Health & Wellness data to reveal what’s really shaping this summer’s travel trends.
At Langston, we believe deeply in the power of a good insight.
But a good insight does not come from taking a single data point and building a story around it. It comes from connecting multiple signals to create context, deepen understanding, and uncover the nuance that is so often present in human behavior. Only then does a finding become something we would call an insight.
A data point can be accurate, useful, and worth paying attention to. But on its own, it usually tells you what showed up, not why it matters or what to do next. The insight comes from understanding what that data point connects to: the behaviors around it, the needs underneath it, the audiences driving it, and the decisions it should help inform.
That belief shapes how we approach research. We do not stop at the first finding, and we do not assume the average tells the whole story. We look for the patterns, tensions, and connections that make the data more useful.
This is exactly why Landscapes was built as an interconnected data ecosystem. Better insights rarely come from one isolated number. They come from reading across categories, audiences, brands, behaviors, and needs until the story becomes clearer. Let’s explore how it works with a real example.
The Data Point: Wellness Is Showing Up in Travel
In Langston’s Travel Landscapes study of more than 3,000 Americans, 22% say they book a massage, spa treatment, facial, or manicure during a trip. That means more than one in five travelers are seeking out some form of wellness or self-care while they are away.
On its own, that is an interesting stat, and the surface read is fairly straightforward: spa is popular among travelers, so brands should find ways to drive more spa bookings.
But that surface read does not get us very far. If a travel or hospitality brand stops there, the implication stays fairly narrow: promote the spa, add a wellness package, or treat it as a niche amenity.
The better question is what that behavior is actually signaling. Why are travelers making room for wellness while they are away? What need is that treatment helping fulfill?
When we read the travel data alongside Langston’s Health and Wellness study, the spa statistic starts to look less like an isolated travel behavior and more like one expression of a much bigger consumer need.
Signal One: Consumers Are Looking for Quiet
In Langston’s Health and Wellness study of more than 3,000 Americans, “reduce stress and anxiety” emerged as the third most prevalent need in the entire study, cited by 61% of the population.
Right behind it, 45% of consumers say they want to sharpen focus and concentration, and 41% say they want to be more mindful and present. Those needs point to people being overwhelmed, distracted, and actively looking for ways to turn the volume down.
That context changes how we read the original travel data point. If 22% of travelers are booking a spa treatment during a trip, the behavior may not be only about a manicure, massage, or facial. For many consumers, it may be one of the few moments in the travel experience designed around quiet, reset, and relief from stimulation.
Signal Two: Experiences Are Carrying More Emotional Weight
The shift toward experiences over tangible goods has been well-documented for years, especially among younger consumers. A long-cited Eventbrite study found 78% of younger consumers would rather spend on an experience than a material thing. A 2024 Experian report found 63% of Gen Z and 59% of millennials prefer spending on life experiences like travel now rather than saving for later. And McKinsey’s travel experiences research found that 52% of Gen Zers say they splurge on experiences, compared with 29% of baby boomers.
Our Health and Wellness study adds more texture to what younger consumers expect those experiences to deliver.
For Gen Z, wellness stretches across presence, appearance, creativity, and community. Forty-six percent say they want to be more mindful and present, 49% want better-looking skin, 36% want to boost creative thinking, and 27% want to find a stronger sense of community.
Taken together, those signals suggest that spa behavior in travel may be less about pampering alone and more about a broader need for restoration. For younger consumers, it is becoming part of how they express themselves, connect with others, and decide which experiences feel worth investing in.
That gives the original spa statistic more meaning. The behavior may reflect a broader expectation that a good trip should help people feel restored, present, and more like the version of themselves they want to be.
Signal Three: Mental Recovery Is Now Part of Health
The most prevalent wellness needs in America now span physical, mental, and emotional health. Consumers want to sleep better (63%), eat healthier (62%), reduce stress and anxiety (61%), increase daily energy (53%), and strengthen immunity (48%). These needs are showing up together, which suggests consumers are treating them as part of the same overall health picture.
The unmet need story sharpens this further. Langston’s metness score measures how well a need is currently being addressed, with a higher score indicating greater satisfaction with available solutions. “Reduce stress and anxiety” scores 6.12, compared to 6.74 for “eat healthier,” suggesting consumers feel less served on the mental and emotional side than they do on more familiar physical health needs.
If consumers increasingly see stress reduction, rest, and emotional recovery as part of health, then a spa treatment on a trip is not simply an indulgence. It may be a way of meeting a need that feels chronically underserved in daily life.
The Insight: Beyond “Spa Is Popular”
Now go back to the original statistic: 22% of travelers book a massage, spa treatment, facial, or manicure during a trip.
The basic read is that wellness has a place in travel. The stronger insight comes from connecting that behavior to the needs and expectations surrounding it. Consumers are looking for quiet in a noisy world. Younger consumers are treating wellness as part of what a meaningful experience should deliver. And mental and emotional recovery are now part of how many people define health.
Taken together, those signals suggest that spa behavior in travel is less about pampering alone and more about a broader need for restoration. That is what we refer to as triangulation, where we read one behavior against a set of needs, and then against a broader cultural shift, until the picture becomes clearer. No single statistic could tell that story on its own.
The Bigger Lesson for Brands and Researchers
For travel brands, the opportunity is not simply to build a spa. Spa is one visible expression of the need we’re seeing among consumers, but the same forces can show up across the broader travel experience.
They can reward a hotel that designs for genuine quiet rather than busy amenities, an airline that makes the journey feel less like an ordeal and more like part of the experience, or any brand that helps people feel restored rather than simply served.
If you read the spa number as a niche finding, you might add a wellness amenity. If you read it as a signal, you start building for the needs underneath it. That is the difference between reacting to a data point and using insight to guide strategy.
The larger research lesson is just as important. No single number in this story is the insight. Each one is simply an ingredient. The insight appears when those pieces start to line up, when a behavior in Travel Landscapes connects to needs in Health and Wellness, and when both point toward the same human truth.
That is why a connected data ecosystem is so valuable. When studies live in isolation, it is easier to stop at individual findings. When they can be read together, patterns become easier to see and surface-level data starts to resolve into something more useful.
Want to see what triangulation reveals in your category? Explore Langston’s Landscapes data or connect with our team.