Fans' strong emotional attachment to favorite characters and celebrities leads to a desire for proximity. Travel to locations significant to fandom helps fans feel like part of the story - a source of meaning. Fans describe these pilgrimages as providing a sense of homecoming to a place that is new but familiar. The location is invested with the symbolism of something special and sacred, no matter how mundane it seems.
If the predictions cited within are any indication, 2026 will involve a lot of travel that blends novelty and familiarity. That might mean traveling to a distant destination with some of the people you know best, but it could also involve voyaging to the other side of the world while retaining the comforts of home. As Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta phrased it, the word the company is using to describe this is the "whycation," "a global movement rooted in intentionality, where travel begins not with a destination, but with a motivation."