There’s nothing that sticks in the craw of a consummate bibliophile as much as being told that reading is ‘trendy’ again. And yet, it’s impossible to deny that reading is having its moment in the sun (again).
Book Doof (communal reading experiences) is Australia’s hottest trend, with book bedazzling (decorating covers) coming in a hot second. The third, somewhat more baffling trend, is the book bouquet, where groups of people come together to learn how to destroy a book only for it to be fashioned into a bouquet of paper flowers.
Across the frothing ocean, in India, entire villages are transforming themselves. The Maharashtrian village of Bhilar has been declared the country’s first ‘book village’ with residents opening up their homes into open-door genre-specific libraries. This is being replicated in Jammu & Kashmir’s Aragam village.
Tourism Kerala is bricking an entire literary tourism circuit for visitors, connecting the birthplaces, memorials, and residences of major Malayalam authors across several districts — a push that gained extra momentum after Kozhikode was named a UNESCO City of Literature.
Meanwhile, Paju is South Korea’s ‘Book City’, with 900-odd book-related business dotting its picturesque streets. The Forest of Wisdom is the central attraction, a library with thousands of books available to anyone who drops in. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves line the walls.
And in Tokyo, the Book and Bed hostel is famous for its beds designed as giant bookshelves into which guests curl up at night to sleep.
Not at all surprising then, that literary tourism and reading retreats are 2026’s breakout travel trend. Not that there’s anything particularly new about bookish travelers. Janeites have long followed in the steps of Jane Austen’s writing (Bath being a particular favorite). Innumerable articles have been inked about walking through Paris in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway.
So what’s different? The enormity of the offering – it has swelled to include all manner of authors everywhere around the world and all manner of travel, and (as always) the accompanying marketing push.
Today literary tourism covers a broad gamut of experiences; everything from traveling to real-world locations from novels, touring writers’ homes and museums, joining literary walking tours, attending book festivals, booking multi-day ‘readaway’ retreats, hunting down beloved independent bookshops, and traveling with book clubs. Increasingly, travelers are letting a book choose their destination rather than the reverse.
Travel companies now run week-long getaways in places like the Cotswolds, Costa Rica, and coastal Maine, combining book-appropriate lodging, chefs cooking meals from the texts, and light excursions combined with the real appeal: extended, unstructured reading time. Book clubs have followed the same trajectory, growing from casual local gatherings into full travel communities with retreats spanning Oregon, Maine, Morocco, Greece, the Caribbean, and beyond.
Often, authors are themselves leading these retreats, speaking about their creative process, and the extensive behind-the-scenes work required to put a successful book together.
Together, these formats show literary tourism evolving from a niche pilgrimage activity into a diversified travel category — one blending retreat culture, author access, fandom-driven itineraries, and destination storytelling, with hotels now joining in by adding libraries and book-themed stays.
Skyscanner’s “Bookbound” report found that a majority of travelers have either booked or would consider booking a trip inspired by a book, and hotel searches using the platform’s “library” filter have jumped sharply year-over-year. Meanwhile, the vacation rental platform Vrbo reported that the vast majority of people it surveyed were interested in a getaway built around reading and relaxing.
And yet every conceivable report screams at the decline in readers; we are told over and over again that book sales are dropping, and books are interesting only in so far as they are made into a film or a television show. But book travel is soaring, suggesting that travelers want the immersive, story-driven experience that books represent. Literary tourism is now estimated to be worth well over $2 billion, with continued growth projected into the next decade.
So why now? The slow food movement was the harbinger of the slow travel movement, into which this slots perfectly. People don’t want to be irked by the constant popping of screen notifications, spending leisurely days doing…well, nothing in particular. Booktok has done its bit too, spurring travel companies to design itineraries directly around bestselling and viral book titles.
Besides, fiction offers an escape valve during periods of uncertainty, and literary travel intensifies that escape by making it physical as well as mental. Historically, genre booms have tracked global anxieties — fantasy surged during the upheaval of the 1930s and ’40s, science fiction rose alongside the space race and countercultural movements of the 1960s, and today’s interest in myth and speculative fiction reflects a broader cultural reckoning with rapidly shifting systems.
What ties all of this together is a shared appeal: books give a place meaning before a traveler even arrives. A guidebook can tell you what’s there; a novel can make you feel something about it first. That emotional head start — paired with the desire to disconnect, linger, and travel more intentionally — is what’s turning literary tourism from a niche interest into one of the defining travel trends of the year. Whether it’s a five-star retreat with a private author talk or a single afternoon spent browsing a stranger’s home library in a small village, the throughline is the same: travelers increasingly want to step into the story, not just check the destination off a list.
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