Between airport fires, missile strikes, and multiple wars still raging across the globe, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to assume most Londoners are packing away their passports and staying put.
But while 2025 has made flying feel more chaotic and unpredictable than ever, something else is happening instead: people aren’t stopping travel — they’re just changing the way they do it.
What Might Be Putting Them Off?
Let’s start at home. In March, a huge fire at an electricity substation shut down Heathrow — Europe’s busiest airport — grounding flights, cancelling plans, and leaving passengers sleeping on the floor with no answers. As of now, we still don’t officially know what caused it. It wasn’t the weather. It wasn’t a strike. It was just… a fire. A very badly timed, highly disruptive, confidence-shaking fire.
That alone might’ve been enough to make some would-be travellers say “screw it” and stay home. But throw in recent missile strikes in Pakistan, the ongoing tensions between Israel and Palestine, plus the never-ending news cycle of Ukraine, Gaza, and Syria, and you’ve got many reasons to stay grounded.
And that’s before we even get to the cost. Flights are up, hotels are up, and insurance is up. When the world feels shaky and everything costs more, that weekend away suddenly looks a lot less spontaneous.
So… Are People Staying Home?
Not exactly.
Yes, some are putting certain regions on pause. The appeal of bouncing between war-adjacent countries for a bit of sun has definitely dipped. But overall? Brits aren’t quitting travel. They’re just doing it a little differently. Longer stays. Fewer stops. A focus on experiences, not itineraries.
One recent travel report even pointed to an increase in “slow travel” — the trend of doing less, but enjoying more. Instead of ticking five cities off in ten days, more people are choosing to stay in one place, live like a local, and actually remember where on earth they’ve been.
Most are Choosing Experience Over Escape
This shift makes sense. In uncertain times, people crave a feeling of control. Flying in and out of multiple countries during a week of missile updates and airport closures? Not exactly relaxing. But booking one destination — one that feels stable, warm, and wine-friendly — and staying for a week or two to decompress? It’s certainly appealing.
Also, there’s a growing “quality over quantity” mindset. Less pressure to post 30 locations on Instagram. More interest in food tours, cultural dives, and even travel with purpose. We reached out to Alina, one of the many Heathrow escortswho see the travel habits of Londoners firsthand:
“You’d think things would’ve slowed down, but I still get booked almost every single day by guys flying in or out. Businessmen, solo travellers, and even couples on stopovers. Travel has in no way stopped at all. People are just more cautious and going away for longer.”
Are Brits Wising Up When it Comes to Travel?
All signs point to the fact that travel is evolving, not dying. Sure, the world’s a mess. But wanderlust doesn’t die just because there’s a fire at Heathrow or a war on the horizon. If anything, the messier things get, the more people want a break from it — even if that break looks different in 2025 than it did before.
Travellers haven’t stopped travelling. They’ve just wised up.
