Why stargazing is the trend number one in the Booking.com travel predictions for 2025 - a comment from Visit Dark Skies founder Etta Dannemann
Wow. 62% of travelers say they plan to travel for stargazing, making it trend number one in the 2025 Booking.com travel predictions. This is exceptional - even for us watching this trend since 2018.
With the International Travel Fair (ITB)2025 in Berlin coming up, here is my perspective about this astro-tourism trend and its reasons.
A short notice about myself: I have been looking deeply into this market since 2018 as I am the founder of Visit Dark Skies GmbH, a publisher of a stargazing audio experience concept founded in 2020. I am well connected to dark sky researchers, astro-tourism operators, star guides and activists in the dark sky space in Berlin and world-wide and have worked in global trend research before.
Feel free to reach out for more an interview or meeting on ITB Berlin: info@visitdarkskies.com
Intro
Nocturnal tourism, olso astro-tourism or dark sky tourism, is an ongoing niche trend in the travel industry that seems to reach a new peak for this season. A survey by booking.com made among 27.000 travelers revealed that 62% plan to visit a dark sky place:
”Ditching the daylight crowds for midnight magic, nearly two thirds (62%) are considering visiting darker sky destinations with starbathing experiences (72%), star guides (59%), once in a lifetime cosmic events (59%), and constellation tracking (57%) top of the stellar adventure list.”
So obviously there is a large number of people striving for starbathing - a term that is not reflected in event offers in dark sky regions yet.
This is why I have founded Visit Dark Skies based on my own personal experience and lack of guidance. The booking.com report ist heavily confirming my educated guess about the desire for naked-eye stargazing among dark sky travelers.
At Visit Dark Skies, we fill a gap in the global astrotourism industry as we foster on an atmospheric, perception-oriented starry-sky immersion concept instead of doing astronomy tours.
So what are the trends and mega-trends that drive this demand? Let’s dive into it.
1. Light pollution is raising at a stunning pace: 10% per year (!)
Light pollution has been raising since 150 years due to the development of artificial lighting. As a consequence, the stars are less visible years over year, with a dramatic increase since the introduction of LED lighting.
A new research result shows that light pollution has culminated in a stunning 10% yearly (!) increase in the last decade. The citizen-science backed research report, published by light-pollution researchers Christopher Kyba et al. in the magazine Science revealed the dramatic loss of the stars visibility from 2011 to 2022.
The invention of artificial lighting together with industrialization and urbanization has been a major driver for this in the last century. It was dynamised in the last decade with the invention and distribution of LED lighting that have a larger amount of blue wavelengths in the spectrum, thus contributing more to light pollution.
More than 5.000 Articles of light pollution research have been gathered in the Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) Database so far, starting in 1988 when scientists started to see light as an impact driver on stars visibility. There was a strong booster in the last 20 years for this research as the impact of light on the environment was revealed. I am happy to make connections to relevant researchers in this field.
2. Light pollution awareness is has rising since 30 years due to the dark sky movement
In addition to this research, the campaigning efforts of activists, often starting after a true dark sky experience, has contributed to a greater awareness that light pollution is a big problem. Not only a for the visibility of stars (300 in cities versus 3.000 on the countryside), but also as a severe threat to plants, animals and even people’s health.
People that try to protect the natural night sky for future generation exist all over the world, it is the so-called Dark Sky Movement. Key actors are the dark sky certification associations - with Dark Sky International from the U.S. as the most prominent one. Worth mentioning also the Starlight Foundation with a focus on Spanish-speaking countries and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada as the very first ones who had the idea of protecting the night sky for future generations. In other countries like France and UK, addition local programs exist. With their certification programs and their media campaigning, these organizations had a major impact as multiplicatores and in recent years, mainstream media like CNN or the New York Times and many more media worldwide covered the rise of light pollution. A good overview provides this three-minute video from National Geographic.
3. More people live in cities, longing for a natural night sky
With Urbanisation as a major driving force and nearly 70% of people worldwide living in cities predicted for 2050, most people will grow up without seeing the Milky Way from their hometown and thus will depend on travel to see a natural night sky. As there will be conservation efforts to cultivate our heritage, travel will be enforced in addition to efforts to mitigate light pollution.
4. GPS Technology has changed our mindset and put remote regions on the radar
It was in the 1960’s when Richard Buckminster Fuller became famous with his reflections “on a spaceship called earth” and Steward Brand campaigned for the right of ordinary people to have the right to see NASA’s photos from space.
A view from above, a global overview was a privilege to a few engineers. Today, it is mainstream already for kids.
Today, we all have a view from above, from satellites, at our fingertips. A view that was exclusive in the past, and definitely nothing you would carry in your pocket. This has changed our world-view, our understanding of remote regions and a longing to see more of the world.
5. People are fans of the Universe again
A new fascination for the universe is rising, driven by events like the solar eclipse in 2017 where millions in the U.S. traveled to see it. In addition, private space tourism efforts and satellite debates bring the universe to our minds again on a daily basis. People are more aware of the universe in their life nowadays, probably as much as it was in the 60s.
6. Books and articles about dark sky travel have moved from niche to mainstream
In 2005, a book called Astronomische Reiseziele (Astronomical travel goals)was still a niche product for astronomers who wanted to travel. In 2015, the first extensive astro-tourism book was published written by Bob Mizon, targeted towards mainstream but still with a niche publisher. In 2018, German book “Reiseziel Sternenhimmel (Travel Goal Starry Sky) was published in a more mainstream media publisher (Kosmos), and 2019 the Lonely Planet followed with their first non-regional topic related-book “Lonely Planet Dark Skies”. It was written by Valerie Stimac, Author of the successful blog “Space Tourism Guide”. It was about 2018/2019 that Dark Sky Travel was featured more and more by National Geographic, Condé Nast Traveler, The New York Times “Your next trip? It’s written in the stars….” and since then, media houses publish regularly about light pollution and about dark sky travel.
7. The pandemic brought people to embrace traveling to remote regions and seek for nature-inspired activities.
More decentralized traveling is something can can be beneficial for the planet and has gained traction during the pandemic.
8. The Glamping industry is rising at double digits each year and RV travel got big. Specialized sky watching resorts are thriving.
The glamping industry is growing each year at double digits, and many people have adapted to Vanlife and RV Traveling. In addition, specialized providers for stargazing have opened - providers like „Starstruck Glamping“, “Skyview Torrey” or “Kosmos Stargazin Resort” (not opened yet, but booked out for 2025). These openings show new attractive niche concepts dedicated entirely to the view of the stars.
9. Nature parks offer more guided stargazing tours
Guided stargazing tours are booked out very often, demand is much larger than the current offerings. But nature parks have started to keep up with demand of experiences and started to educate more star guides - booked out for every tour since then. Promotion of these tours create demand for dark sky travel.
10. Star bathing becomes a thing as mindful travel and conscious travel are becoming relevant.
Providers like Space Tourism Guide, Go Stargazing or Visit Dark Skies help people find accommodations in dark sky areas.
Offers like the Visit Dark Skies Stargazing Audio Experience or Mindful Stargazing Workshops by Marc Westmoquette are innovative star-bathing activities - a niche that will grow more in the upcoming years.
This trend will continue. Why?
Dark sky experiences are powerful and are rarely met in their intensity. They touch the soul, providing the larger context of eternity and life purpose as well as environmental awareness.
You might know a friend who has changed career after stargazing in the desert, being the only place that is able to deliver the context of a very long timespan.
Seeing the Milky Way is something we want to allow our kids to experience. We have romantic hope driven with it, again beeing connected to life and death, long timespans and spirituality around the stars in many cultures.
If you do not know where to start your travel research, reach out to me.
For journalists and bloggers: if you want to know more or have an interview with me, feel free to reach out:
info@visitdarkskies.com