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The customer travel journey is transforming from a traditional sales funnel into an interconnected set of steps and activities. Skift and Amazon Ads surveyed more than 1,600 U.S. leisure travelers in summer 2025 to understand changing motivations around what inspires them to travel, where they find influence, and how they’re discovering where to go next.

For travel marketers, the trends uncovered by the research have both strategic and tactical implications. Marketing effectiveness now depends on aligning inspiration, relevance, and conversion across multiple platforms, including streaming and social media, retail media, online travel agencies, and brand sites.

The central question for marketers and advertisers has shifted from “where should we place this ad?” to “where might our audience be when they are most open to imagining and planning the next trip, and how do we help them act on that moment?” 

This report will examine how travelers’ mindsets are evolving, how travel discovery and planning are merging, and what they’re doing as a result of these changes. Ultimately, it examines how travel marketers and advertisers can navigate their customers’ diverse paths and identify new opportunities to engage and attract them.