The rise of sleep tourism: Holidays built around rest, quiet cities and a good night’s sleep
For so long (and this is particularly true of the post-Covid atmosphere), the focus for many tourists when it comes to travel is to ‘rack up’ destinations and fill every visit with as much content as possible. It results in a palpable mania or even mild frenzy that leaves so many tourists returning after a break tired and in need of a rest.
This is the very opposite of the intended purpose of a holiday but now it seems that a certain cohort of tourists are going back to basics on restful travel, while those in the travel industry are realising that this growing niche might just be worth targeting.
The UK has long been the source of intrepid tourists who have the ‘conquest’ attitude towards travel but it’s interesting to see that there’s now a marked tendency not only for the world-weary British tourist to turn towards home but for their number one priority in booking a holiday to be simply a comfortable bed.
According to a recent survey carried out by British interiors company Tapi Carpets & Floors, those looking for a home break are placing blissful nighttime rest above all other considerations:
In search of a good night’s sleep
“Searches for ‘best UK staycation’ are up by 55% in the past three months,” says Tapi spokesperson Johanna Constantinou. “When it comes to booking, it turns out that holidaymakers aren’t chasing luxury add-ons like hot tubs and saunas first; they’re looking for something far more simple – a good night’s sleep.”
Fancy amenities are still very much appreciated, the survey clearly shows, with people of all ages appreciating relaxing add-ons such as spas, but comfort is the key factor driving holiday-home bookings, with over one-third (37%) stating that a comfortable bed and quality bedding is the most important feature when choosing a holiday let.
What is even more interesting about these findings is that the younger age-groups (the so-called Generation Z and Millennials) are even more inclined towards a restorative holiday than older holidaymakers. After ‘comfortable beds,’ the next most important priority is ‘natural light,’ something that helps reset our body clocks. 17% of respondents ticked this as their second priority, but that figure rises to 21% amongst the Millennial and Gen-Z tribes.
Like most human trends, this one isn’t confined to Britain either and it hasn’t escaped the attention of the Lithuanian tourism authorities.
Go Vilnius – the English-language promotional brand for the Baltic nation’s capital, are focusing on a campaign based on the growing need for holidaymakers to catch up on some quality sleep while they’re away.
Sleep Tourism projected to grow by 12.4% annually until 2030.
According to their own research, ‘sleep tourism’ is expected to grow by 12.4% annually from now until 2030. The demand is rising, they say, for sleep-centric accommodation, in green and calm city locations that offer clean air, less street light and less noise.
“Not all cities are equally suited to support the growing need for rest and sleep,” says leading Lithuanian neuroscientist and sleep researcher Dr Laura Bojarskaitė.
For those seeking better sleep, Go Vilnius argues, their city stands out as one of the European capitals known to meet such conditions as green space, walkability, and quieter evenings.
One wonders how Dublin ranks in this snooze-ometer of European cities. It might do okay on walkability and green space, particularly around the southside areas of St Stephen’s Green, Grafton Street and Trinity College. But if you’re seeking quieter evenings, it’s probably not something that we specialise in in any Irish city.
What Makes a City Sleep-Friendly
According to Dr Bojarskaitė, rest-friendly cities share particular characteristics:
- Green spaces, parks, ponds, rivers; when people spend time in natural environments, their levels of cortisol (the primary stress hormone) tend to drop. Cortisol levels are essential during the day but need to decline in the evening for sleep to begin smoothly. If you’re in a city where green spaces are easily accessible and integrated into daily life, visitors are naturally giving their nervous systems exactly what they need to wind down come nightfall.
- Visible sky and open space; a sleep-friendly city is one with visible sky and open space, rather than too many high-rise buildings. Water and greenery form an integral part of daily movement through such a city, resulting in a noticeable calming down as evening comes.
- Cognitive spaciousness: navigating a new city can result in visitors feeling somewhat overwhelmed – particularly with underground systems. In a compact and easy-to-navigate city, people find themselves less overwhelmed and navigating naturally. The reduction in the cognitive load means fewer racing thoughts at bedtime.
- Walkability: In a more walkable city with shorter distances to cover, visitors are moving more during the day, strengthening circadian timing by being exposed to natural light and exercise at the right time of day. Walking also increases adenosine accumulation in the brain – the molecule that creates ‘sleep pressure.’ The more adenosine that builds up, the stronger the will is to sleep at night. Walking through a city centre along a river also allows attention to relax, reducing mental rumination at night.
- Calmer evenings; for the all-important shift from sympathetic (fight or flight) dominance to parasympathetic (rest and digest) dominance, cities that calm down in the evening in a natural way, with the sunset visible, help to cue the nervous system that it’s safe to ‘power down’ for the night, causing cortisol levels to drop, the heart rate to decrease and the brain to smoothly transition into sleep.
“Together, these factors create the ideal biological conditions for faster sleep onset and deep, more restorative sleep,” says Dr Bojarskaitė. “Vilnius is one of the most sleep-welcoming cities in Europe as it ticks all of these boxes.”
According to her studies, the other cities that scored highly in the snooze index were Dresden in Germany, Poznań in Poland, and Latvian capital Riga.
If there’s one thing they all have in common, it’s that they’re all on a similar latitude to Irish cities. Our tourism industry has the raw materials, it seems, to cash in on this growing trend.
Opportunity knocks!
