Travel planning is becoming more flexible, with clients waiting longer
Across the Asia-Pacific and beyond, a quiet but consequential shift is underway in how human beings relate to time, planning, and the act of departure. Data from Expedia's early 2026 search patterns reveals a 25 percent year-on-year surge in last-minute bookings — those made just one to two weeks before travel — suggesting that spontaneity is no longer an exception but an emerging norm. Driven by flexible pricing, event-triggered desire, and lives that resist fixed schedules, travelers are increasingly choosing to remain open until the last possible moment. For an industry long built on the comfort of advance commitment, this is less a disruption than an invitation to reimagine what readiness looks like.
- Last-minute bookings in the 7-to-13-day window surged 25% year-on-year across APAC and globally in early 2026, with Latin America pushing even harder at 30% — signaling a structural shift, not a seasonal quirk.
- The old rhythm of planning months ahead has fractured: travelers are now watching, waiting, and responding to price drops, live events, and sudden changes in their own circumstances before committing.
- Event-driven spikes are sharpening the trend — searches to the US and Canada rose 10% ahead of a major football tournament, while Mexico saw a 15% jump, showing how a single catalyst can move thousands of decisions at once.
- Travel advisors face a compressed window of relevance: clients who once gave them months to plan now need confident, fast-moving support in days — rewarding those who can act quickly and penalising those still operating on the old timeline.
- Expedia's Robin Lawther frames the moment as opportunity: with over 200,000 advisors across 35 markets on the platform, the infrastructure exists — the question is whether advisors have the agility to meet clients exactly where, and when, they finally decide to move.
The numbers arriving out of early 2026 are not a blip — they are a pattern. Expedia's search data shows a 25 percent year-on-year jump in trips booked just one to two weeks before departure, a figure that holds across North America, Asia-Pacific, and most of the globe. Latin America pushed even further, hitting 30 percent. What was once the behaviour of the impulsive few has become the quiet habit of the travelling many.
Expedia attributes the shift to a travel environment that has grown genuinely more flexible. Consumers are no longer locked into the linear planning cycles that once defined the industry. Instead, they are responding in real time — to a fare that suddenly drops, an event that catches their eye, or a change in their own lives that makes a trip suddenly possible. Event-driven travel is a vivid illustration: searches to the US and Canada rose 10 percent ahead of a major northern-summer football tournament, while Mexico saw a 15 percent spike driven by similar interest.
For travel advisors across the Asia-Pacific region, the implications are immediate and practical. The client who once arrived with months to spare now arrives with days. Robin Lawther, who leads Expedia's advisor program across the region, sees this not as a threat but as an opening — a chance for advisors to prove their value precisely when the pressure is highest and the decisions need to be made fast.
Expedia's affiliate platform spans 35 markets and more than 200,000 individual advisors. Those advisors now have a clearer picture of what their clients are doing in the weeks before they book: watching, waiting, and staying open. The industry's next challenge is whether its people have the tools and the instincts to meet that moment — or whether they will still be preparing for a departure that has already left.
The numbers tell a story about how people travel now, and they're shifting faster than the old playbooks predicted. In the first three months of 2026, searches for trips booked just one to two weeks out jumped 25 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. That's not a blip. That's a pattern. And it's showing up everywhere—globally, yes, but also right here in the Asia-Pacific region, where the growth rate matched the worldwide average almost exactly.
Expedia Group, which has the search data to prove it, is calling this a fundamental change in how travelers think about planning. The seven- to 13-day booking window—that narrow slice of time when someone decides to actually commit to a trip—has become a much bigger piece of the pie. Latin America led the charge with a 30 percent surge, but North America and APAC both hit 25 percent, which means this isn't some regional anomaly. It's happening across multiple continents at once.
For travel advisors working in Australia and across the broader Asia-Pacific region, the implications are concrete. Clients are no longer following the old rhythm of booking months in advance. They're waiting. They're watching. They're responding to what's happening right now—a sale that just dropped, an event that caught their attention, a shift in their own circumstances that suddenly makes a trip possible or necessary. The predictable, linear planning cycle that used to dominate the industry has fractured into something messier and more reactive.
Expedia attributes much of this to a travel environment that's become genuinely more flexible. Consumers aren't locked into rigid patterns anymore. They're making decisions based on immediate factors: pricing swings, specific events, changing confidence levels, disruptions in their own lives. Event-driven travel is a clear example. Searches for trips to the United States and Canada spiked 10 percent year-on-year as travelers looked ahead to a major football tournament in the northern summer. Mexico saw a 15 percent jump in searches, likely driven by similar event-focused interest.
Robin Lawther, who leads Expedia's travel advisor program across the Asia-Pacific and broader regions, framed the shift as an opportunity rather than a threat. Travel planning, he said, is becoming more flexible, with clients waiting longer and responding more directly to events, pricing, and changing circumstances. For advisors, that creates a clear opening: the chance to add value in the moment, to help clients move quickly when they do decide to book, to navigate the choices confidently even on a compressed timeline.
Expedia's travel advisor affiliate program, which operates across 35 markets, has more than 40,000 agencies and over 200,000 individual advisors on its platform. Those advisors now have a clearer picture of what their clients are doing—and what they're waiting for. The old model of booking far in advance is giving way to something more dynamic, more responsive, and ultimately more dependent on advisors who can help clients make good decisions fast. The question for the industry now is whether advisors have the tools and training to capitalize on that shift, or whether they'll be caught flat-footed when clients finally decide to move.
Notable Quotes
Travel planning is becoming more flexible, with many clients waiting longer to book and responding more directly to events, pricing and changing circumstances.— Robin Lawther, VP of Expedia TAAP and Business Development
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
So people are booking trips two weeks out instead of two months out. Why does that matter so much?
Because it changes everything about how the travel industry operates. If you're a hotel or an airline, you used to have months to plan capacity. Now you have weeks. If you're a travel advisor, you used to have time to research and think. Now you need to move fast and be confident.
But isn't last-minute travel always a thing? Why is a 25 percent jump significant?
Because it's not fringe behavior anymore. It's becoming the norm. A quarter more searches in that window means it's no longer an exception—it's a growing share of how people actually plan trips. That's a structural shift.
What's driving it? Is it just cheaper prices?
Partly, but it's bigger than that. Expedia sees it as flexibility meeting opportunity. People have more options now, more information, more ability to change plans. They're responding to events, to pricing, to their own circumstances. The old fixed planning cycle doesn't fit anymore.
So travel advisors are supposed to benefit from this?
In theory, yes. If clients are booking closer to departure, they need help moving fast and making good choices under time pressure. That's where an advisor adds value. But only if the advisor is set up to handle it—tools, knowledge, speed.
What happens to the advisors who aren't ready?
They get left behind. Clients who need to book in two weeks won't wait for an advisor who operates on a two-month cycle. The market is rewarding speed and responsiveness now.