As we flip the calendar to January, the travel industry usually goes into a frenzy of ‘New Year, New Destination’ lists.

We see headlines shouting about the Top 10 Places You Must See Before You Die or the latest ‘it’ city that’s trending on social media.

It feeds into a culture of checklist tourism with an emphasis on racing to collect stamps, snap the iconic photo, and move on to the next pin on the map.

But as we enter 2026, I believe we’re hitting a collective breaking point with fast travel.

For years, the industry has measured success by quantity: the number of arrivals, the number of nights booked, and for the traveller, the number of countries checked off.

But if you’ve ever come home from a whirlwind two-week trip feeling like you need a vacation from your vacation, you’ve experienced the hollowness of the checklist.

Deep travel has been embedded into the culture of G Adventures since the very beginning, says G Adventures’ David Green (bottom right)

We’re seeing a profound shift in the Canadian traveller, and a growing resolution not just to see the world, but to actually feel it.

I call this ‘deep travel’, and it’s been embedded into the culture of G Adventures since the very beginning.

Deep Travel isn’t about how far you go, but rather, it’s about how much you let in. It’s the difference between simply getting your Insta-shot standing in the Sahara dunes in Morocco – or meeting the local Berbers in their homes on the skirts of the Sahara dunes, learning about their way of life, sampling their homemade bread that they still bake the traditional way.

Essentially, it’s the pivot from being a spectator to being a welcomed guest.

In my years in this industry, I’ve noticed that the most restorative experiences don’t happen while rushing between monuments. Rather, they happen in the in-between moments; the slow train rides with strangers, the shared meals in community-run lodges, and the unplanned, candid conversations with local guides.

G Adventures knows how to have fun, in Morocco and everywhere else

When we slow down, we give the destination a chance to breathe, and more importantly, we give ourselves a chance to change.

As travel advisors and industry leaders, we have a unique responsibility this year. We need to stop being destination order-takers and start being geographic curators. Instead of asking our clients, “Where do you want to go?” we should be asking, “How do you want to feel when you come back?”

If someone comes home from a trip with a thousand photos but not a single story about a person they met, did they really travel? Or did they just relocate their life for a week?

My resolution for the industry this year is simple: let’s help our travellers trade their checklists for connections. Let’s encourage them to pick a region and go deep, rather than rushing across five countries and staying shallow.

Because at the end of the day, we won’t remember the number of borders we crossed – we’ll remember the number of lives that touched ours.

G Adventures’ VP Customer & Sales Operations and Managing Director, Canada, David Green shares his industry insights, anecdotes and wisdom every month in his monthly column, ’G in 3’. It’s a 3-minute read running exclusively in Travelweek Daily in 2026.

Lead image caption: G Adventures’ David Green (far right) with members of the G Adventures team fly the G flag in Morocco