Google search market review for peaks 2026

Those who were keen to plan trips for the year ahead have largely already settled on their beach, chateau, city break, countryside escape or wherever they’ve chosen to go. Much has been made of the gradual flattening of peaks in recent years and, as in previous analyses, we wanted to see whether Google search behaviour reflects that wider market demand.

The short TL;DR answer is yes, it does. Searches for the months of January and February 2026 saw an overall decline in search volume of 1.2% year-on-year compared to 2025. And 2025 saw a drop in search of 6.8% meaning compared to 2024 figures, overall searches are down 8%. With such a drop in overall behaviour, it’s therefore no wonder that many travel companies have struggled to make their peaks targets when overall searches are continuing to nudge down over time. That, coupled with an overall drop in organic search volume due to AI Overviews and occasionally AI Mode, just means in travel, you have to work extra hard (or spend more) to grow your search presence and bookings.

But as you will know dear reader, not all travel is created equally. Audiences, destinations and types of travel are quite different and so just because overall numbers are flat or down a touch, doesn’t mean that your specific area of travel is too.

January and February searches by category

Let’s look at how each specific part of travel grew or shrank in these two months against previous years.

As we can see here, the biggest winners in the last three years overall in peaks have been cruise and luxury holiday searches, where year on year searches have been on the up (apart from 2025 in luxury). Whilst cruise saw a surge in 2024 and again in 2025, there’s little sign of that momentum slowing in 2026. It’s less a moment and more a sustained movement. And perhaps given the cost-of-living struggles of recent years, luxury travel has been mostly unaffected and continues to grow online.

On the flip side, despite having a barn-storming year overall in 2025, the searches for walking holidays in 2026 took a sharp dip, the biggest of our data set at nearly 40% year on year. Other types of holidays also struggled, with skiing, package and specialist tours all seeing some big drops too. The reasons behind this are going to be hard to unpick here, but changes in buying patterns, cost of flights, global warming and political instability all play their parts to varying degrees.

Top growth in country and product searches

With overall searches down for the year, it’s perhaps not that unsurprising to see few large countries growing in search volume. However, our data set isn’t just search phrases that target specific countries - they cover all types and brands of travel. Therefore, specific country searches will have their own underlying movements.

Sadly, in these two months of 2026 compared to 2025, we only saw SIX countries with search volume of over 10,000 searches with growth. That is only 9% of all our countries with an increase at that level, while 82% of countries saw a drop. This again suggests that instead of seeking out destinations, travellers are instead searching for types of holidays (generally cruise and luxury), brands or holiday styles.

Some travel brands, again mostly cruise, saw large increases in searches in January and February 2026, while some of the more generic phrases like ‘caribbean cruise’ also experienced huge uplifts on already big numbers. With so much world instability, it’s not surprising to see the Caribbean continue to be hugely popular and we expect it to continue the big rises we saw in 2025 long into 2026.

Perhaps also unsurprisingly when certain countries fall out of favour, their general searches will too which is largely reflected in the specific terms listed below.

Have peaks really changed?

One of the things many people have spoken about in the travel events I’ve been to this year is the general ‘flattening’ of peaks overall. Many travel people have been in the sector for decades and can vividly remember the days of the phone ringing off the hook from Boxing Day into mid-March, or online bookings coming in as soon as the Queen had delivered her speech on Christmas Day. With the cost-of-living crisis being all consuming for many over recent years, it’s perhaps no wonder that the peak months aren’t quite what they used to be. And to illustrate this, we looked at the shifts in searches over recent years in both January and February to dig a bit deeper.

The graph below shows how searches have changed month on month over the last three years to show the difference between January and February and how they have behaved.

Searches carried out in January have been on a gradual decline over the past two years, reinforcing what many travel brands are already seeing in their booking data, that January is becoming less busy overall. February told a slightly different story, with 2024 performing strongly before dropping back in 2025. So far in 2026, volumes are tracking closely in line with last year.

The net effect is a less pronounced decline this year compared with the previous one, but still little sign of meaningful growth.

Summary

It hasn’t all been doom and gloom this peaks period. Some destinations continue to grow in popularity year on year and, for those operating in luxury and cruise, it’s been another strong few months with traffic levels higher than ever. But while parts of the sector perform well, others continue to lag, with certain countries and travel types seeing significant drops in search demand.

It’s worth reiterating that searches don’t always translate directly into bookings. They’re a useful indicator, but only part of the picture. Even so, reversing longer term declines in interest for traditionally popular destinations presents a real challenge. Markets such as Turkey, Greece and other European hotspots may need to work harder in the late market to win back UK travellers.

And if peaks now feels behind you and planning is already turning to 2027, it may be wise to set more measured expectations, as budgets remain under pressure and the wider global backdrop continues to change.