Whether it’s restoration, mental wellbeing, digital detoxes or the adrenaline of being in a roaring crowd of fellow supporters of your favourite football team, travel for wellness and sports is accelerating across Asia Pacific (APAC).
Revealing the scale of this trend, Priority Pass’ new research report, “From stadiums to spas: Unlocking the explosive growth of sports and wellness travel” surveys over 12,000 travellers across 20 markets, including seven in APAC.
A large proportion of respondents in APAC indicated that they travel for wellness, while over a third travel for both sports and wellness.
Across APAC, wellness travel dominates, and a growing segment is mixing it with sports
We are entering an era of “Passion Pursuits,” where travellers seek journeys aligned with personal interests and designed to enrich their lives beyond consumption. 81% of APAC consumers increasingly turn to brands for transformative experiences, with travel as a primary channel for delivering them.
Brands that empower their customers to pursue these passions are well placed to benefit, leveraging travel as a catalyst for customer happiness, deeper engagement and long-term relationships.
This shift is also reflected in the growing value of the sports and wellness tourism markets in APAC:
With 43% of APAC travellers seeking wellness experiences, it is no longer a luxury but a lifestyle priority across generations.
Gen Z is a key growth driver for wellness-led travel, engaging in a wider mix of activities than other generations. As a result, brands should look to deliver a blend of active and restorative experiences.
The desire to relax and recharge is a primary driver of wellness travel for:
The desire to digitally detox is a primary driver of wellness travel for:
For experience-driven audiences, the APAC market presents significant potential. Wellness travellers in the region aren’t simply looking for time away – they immerse themselves in their journeys, often staying longer and engaging more deeply with each destination. In turn, they spend more time overseas (64% travel for five or more days) and invest more in trips, with a median spend of USD1,647. This depth of engagement creates a meaningful avenue for brands to build stronger, longer-lasting connections with this high-value audience.
Few experiences bring as much joy as sports. In fact, 44% of sports travellers in APAC are motivated by their passion for a specific sport or team.
While live sporting events drive engagement, their impact lies in loyalty built through team identity, emotion and shared moments. As a result, sports is emerging as a key travel category, shaping destination choices and spending, especially among younger generations.
Adding to this, the desire to visit new destinations – with 47% travelling for sports doing so to visit new cities, rising to 49% among younger travellers – and the relevance of sports-led travel becomes even clearer.
It is therefore evident that brands enabling access to sporting experiences are well positioned to leverage travellers staying longer and spending more when they travel for sports. For brands seeking to engage these audiences, sports also offers diverse fan segments across markets.
The five most popular sports across APAC:
This is clearly reflected in India, for example, where interest is concentrated around cricket and football. Cricket leads, with 81% of sports travellers in India citing it as their primary sporting interest.
This translating directly into travel behaviour. Among younger Indian travellers aged 18-28, nearly 60% plan to travel to attend live cricket matches in 2026 alone. Football also drives significant outbound travel intent, with flight searches from India to Doha surging up to 250% year-on-year during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, while searches for this year’s host cities across the US, Canada and Mexico are already up 30-50% year-on-year – highlighting how sporting events convert into international travel demand.
Moreover, a similar pattern is visible domestically in India, particularly for cricket. In the lead-up to this year’s cricket World Cup, accommodation searches increased between 60% and 120% year-on-year across host cities such as Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur and Lucknow, with fans travelling well beyond their home cities to attend matches.
Beyond traditional sporting events, niche categories are gaining traction, with passionate, travel-ready fan bases emerging around them. Esports, for example, illustrate the evolution of gaming from entertainment to a recognised global competitive sport – primarily enjoyed by younger audiences. While only 1% of Baby Boomers and 11% of Gen Xs are fans, this rises to 20% among Gen Zs and Millennials. Brands can capitalise on this growing appeal by providing access to environments such as gaming lounges in airports, giving these younger travellers a dedicated space to play, connect and engage with interests while they are on the move.
Between wellness and sports, travel motivations are increasingly defined by personal values and passions. With experience-driven travel becoming a baseline expectation, 51% of APAC travellers now prioritise seamless journeys over isolated perks, focusing on enhancements that elevate the overall experience.
And that focus begins the moment they step into the airport, long before they arrive at their destination.
Top payment card benefits that respondents in APAC say enhance their travel experiences:
Collinson International’s Asia Pacific Consumer Happiness Report revealed that travellers respond with greater loyalty and advocacy.
Connecting payment card benefits to spending behaviour and loyalty
Meaningful travel benefits drive engagement, spend and loyalty. Experiences increasingly influence payment card choices, particularly among wellness and sports travellers in APAC.
Globally, 56% of wellness and sports travellers receive travel-related benefits through their most used payment card, with 79% influenced to acquire their card due to these interests. In APAC, this rise to 64% and 83% respectively.
Experience-led travel is now shaping acquisition, spending behaviour, and long-term loyalty, creating a clear opportunity for financial services providers to differentiate, acquire, and retain high-value customers.
To achieve this, brands can curate journeys that reflect personal passions and deliver experiences that go beyond expectation.
Citi upgraded its PremierMiles card to Mastercard World Select, offering faster tracks to elite status with multiple hotel loyalty programs, access to HoteLux membership, and complimentary travel insurance.
Visa refreshed its Infinite card benefits in APAC, with hotel bookings, travel perks, and exclusive pre-sale access tickets to BLACKPINK’s world tour.
Amex partnered with Formula 1 to offer card members exclusive Grand Prix access and premium fan experiences.
Curating high-value travel experiences for your cardholders
Standalone perks are no longer sufficient for today’s travellers. They expect seamless, rewarding experiences at every step of their journey and are actively choosing payment cards that deliver them. By integrating Priority Pass – the world’s leading airport experiences programme owned and operated by Collinson International – brands can elevate the overall travel experience, combining everyday earn rates with meaningful travel benefits while meeting these evolving expectations.
With Priority Pass, members can enjoy more than 1,800 airport lounges and travel experiences worldwide, including lounge access, spa treatments, sleep pods and curated dining offers. They are further complemented by end-to-end services that enhance convenience across the journey: from airport transfers and car rentals to Meet and Assist, airport takeout, co-working spaces, and pre-booking of lounges.
Ultimately, brands that enable customers to pursue their passions and travel interests are best placed to build genuine, lasting relationships in this experience-driven era.
Priority Pass’ network continues to expand to meet evolving travellers’ needs. TrvlWell, for example, is a complimentary digital travel wellness companion designed to support health and wellness while on the move.
Collinson International is the global, privately-owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence.
We work with the world’s leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide. We deliver market-leading airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance solutions for over 400 million end consumers.
Collinson International is the operator of Priority Pass, the world’s original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of over 1,800 lounges and travel experiences, including dining, retail, sleep and spa, in 841 airports in 146 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special.
Whether it’s restoration, mental wellbeing, digital detoxes or the adrenaline of being in a roaring crowd of fellow supporters of your favourite football team, travel for wellness and sports is accelerating across Asia Pacific (APAC).
Revealing the scale of this trend, Priority Pass’ new research report, “From stadiums to spas: Unlocking the explosive growth of sports and wellness travel” surveys over 12,000 travellers across 20 markets, including seven in APAC.
A large proportion of respondents in APAC indicated that they travel for wellness, while over a third travel for both sports and wellness.
Across APAC, wellness travel dominates, and a growing segment is mixing it with sports
We are entering an era of “Passion Pursuits,” where travellers seek journeys aligned with personal interests and designed to enrich their lives beyond consumption. 81% of APAC consumers increasingly turn to brands for transformative experiences, with travel as a primary channel for delivering them.
Brands that empower their customers to pursue these passions are well placed to benefit, leveraging travel as a catalyst for customer happiness, deeper engagement and long-term relationships.
This shift is also reflected in the growing value of the sports and wellness tourism markets in APAC:
With 43% of APAC travellers seeking wellness experiences, it is no longer a luxury but a lifestyle priority across generations.
Gen Z is a key growth driver for wellness-led travel, engaging in a wider mix of activities than other generations. As a result, brands should look to deliver a blend of active and restorative experiences.
The desire to relax and recharge is a primary driver of wellness travel for:
The desire to digitally detox is a primary driver of wellness travel for:
For experience-driven audiences, the APAC market presents significant potential. Wellness travellers in the region aren’t simply looking for time away – they immerse themselves in their journeys, often staying longer and engaging more deeply with each destination. In turn, they spend more time overseas (64% travel for five or more days) and invest more in trips, with a median spend of USD1,647. This depth of engagement creates a meaningful avenue for brands to build stronger, longer-lasting connections with this high-value audience.
Few experiences bring as much joy as sports. In fact, 44% of sports travellers in APAC are motivated by their passion for a specific sport or team.
While live sporting events drive engagement, their impact lies in loyalty built through team identity, emotion and shared moments. As a result, sports is emerging as a key travel category, shaping destination choices and spending, especially among younger generations.
Adding to this, the desire to visit new destinations – with 47% travelling for sports doing so to visit new cities, rising to 49% among younger travellers – and the relevance of sports-led travel becomes even clearer.
It is therefore evident that brands enabling access to sporting experiences are well positioned to leverage travellers staying longer and spending more when they travel for sports. For brands seeking to engage these audiences, sports also offers diverse fan segments across markets.
The five most popular sports across APAC:
This is clearly reflected in India, for example, where interest is concentrated around cricket and football. Cricket leads, with 81% of sports travellers in India citing it as their primary sporting interest.
This translating directly into travel behaviour. Among younger Indian travellers aged 18-28, nearly 60% plan to travel to attend live cricket matches in 2026 alone. Football also drives significant outbound travel intent, with flight searches from India to Doha surging up to 250% year-on-year during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, while searches for this year’s host cities across the US, Canada and Mexico are already up 30-50% year-on-year – highlighting how sporting events convert into international travel demand.
Moreover, a similar pattern is visible domestically in India, particularly for cricket. In the lead-up to this year’s cricket World Cup, accommodation searches increased between 60% and 120% year-on-year across host cities such as Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur and Lucknow, with fans travelling well beyond their home cities to attend matches.
Beyond traditional sporting events, niche categories are gaining traction, with passionate, travel-ready fan bases emerging around them. Esports, for example, illustrate the evolution of gaming from entertainment to a recognised global competitive sport – primarily enjoyed by younger audiences. While only 1% of Baby Boomers and 11% of Gen Xs are fans, this rises to 20% among Gen Zs and Millennials. Brands can capitalise on this growing appeal by providing access to environments such as gaming lounges in airports, giving these younger travellers a dedicated space to play, connect and engage with interests while they are on the move.
Between wellness and sports, travel motivations are increasingly defined by personal values and passions. With experience-driven travel becoming a baseline expectation, 51% of APAC travellers now prioritise seamless journeys over isolated perks, focusing on enhancements that elevate the overall experience.
And that focus begins the moment they step into the airport, long before they arrive at their destination.
Top payment card benefits that respondents in APAC say enhance their travel experiences:
Collinson International’s Asia Pacific Consumer Happiness Report revealed that travellers respond with greater loyalty and advocacy.
Connecting payment card benefits to spending behaviour and loyalty
Meaningful travel benefits drive engagement, spend and loyalty. Experiences increasingly influence payment card choices, particularly among wellness and sports travellers in APAC.
Globally, 56% of wellness and sports travellers receive travel-related benefits through their most used payment card, with 79% influenced to acquire their card due to these interests. In APAC, this rise to 64% and 83% respectively.
Experience-led travel is now shaping acquisition, spending behaviour, and long-term loyalty, creating a clear opportunity for financial services providers to differentiate, acquire, and retain high-value customers.
To achieve this, brands can curate journeys that reflect personal passions and deliver experiences that go beyond expectation.
Citi upgraded its PremierMiles card to Mastercard World Select, offering faster tracks to elite status with multiple hotel loyalty programs, access to HoteLux membership, and complimentary travel insurance.
Visa refreshed its Infinite card benefits in APAC, with hotel bookings, travel perks, and exclusive pre-sale access tickets to BLACKPINK’s world tour.
Amex partnered with Formula 1 to offer card members exclusive Grand Prix access and premium fan experiences.
Curating high-value travel experiences for your cardholders
Standalone perks are no longer sufficient for today’s travellers. They expect seamless, rewarding experiences at every step of their journey and are actively choosing payment cards that deliver them. By integrating Priority Pass – the world’s leading airport experiences programme owned and operated by Collinson International – brands can elevate the overall travel experience, combining everyday earn rates with meaningful travel benefits while meeting these evolving expectations.
With Priority Pass, members can enjoy more than 1,800 airport lounges and travel experiences worldwide, including lounge access, spa treatments, sleep pods and curated dining offers. They are further complemented by end-to-end services that enhance convenience across the journey: from airport transfers and car rentals to Meet and Assist, airport takeout, co-working spaces, and pre-booking of lounges.
Ultimately, brands that enable customers to pursue their passions and travel interests are best placed to build genuine, lasting relationships in this experience-driven era.
Priority Pass’ network continues to expand to meet evolving travellers’ needs. TrvlWell, for example, is a complimentary digital travel wellness companion designed to support health and wellness while on the move.
Collinson International is the global, privately-owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence.
We work with the world’s leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide. We deliver market-leading airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance solutions for over 400 million end consumers.
Collinson International is the operator of Priority Pass, the world’s original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of over 1,800 lounges and travel experiences, including dining, retail, sleep and spa, in 841 airports in 146 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special.