Today's travelers continue to prioritize experiences. But those adventures aren't always at the top of a mountain or at a Michelin-starred restaurant — sometimes they're in the pages of a book.
Avid readers who love to travel have increasing opportunities to combine their hobbies at hotels developing curated trips and unique programming for book lovers.
In its 2026 travel trends report, Expedia Group identified "readaways" or vacations centered around relaxing reading time, as growing in popularity. In 2025, Hyatt Hotels introduced a new experience that allowed its reward members to book their own reading vacation in the great outdoors.
The vision for Camp Unwritten began with Hyatt's 2024 partnership with the outdoor lifestyle brand Under Canvas, said Laurie Blair, senior vice president of global marketing and loyalty at Hyatt. She described the offering as "like an adult sleep-away camp."
"As a population, we may be reading less, but people are really building a passion and identities around it, and that's true for things like food and music and sports as well," Blair said. "I think hoteliers and anyone in the travel industry is seeing this. Travel is being inspired by these things that people care about, and now they're willing to and want to spend and experience in real life these moments of connection and shared passion points."
World of Hyatt members can use the brand's Find platform to book the experience, which includes an upscale tent at one of the participating Under Canvas properties. They join in author-led conversations and other programming supported by Reese's Book Club.
"World of Hyatt specifically is thinking about and turning our members' niche passions or broad passions in sports and entertainment and reading into experiences," Blair said. "We're seeing more and more trends of people traveling around these sort of passion points. ... We wanted guests to experience something that they love, but in an entirely different way."
Across two summers, Camp Unwritten has hosted five three-day experiences at four Under Canvas locations, once each at Under Canvas Columbia River Gorge, Under Canvas Great Smoky Mountains and Under Canvas Yosemite, and twice at its luxury spin-off brand ULUM Moab. Depending on the location's size, 30 to 50 guests — mostly girls trips and solo travelers, Blair said — can stay and participate in discussions, nature activations and more.
"The demand has been such that [there are] authors we're now hearing from who really want to be a part of it. So, there's definitely something magical there happening," Blair said.
Earlier this summer, Minor Hotels rolled out a new book club across its Avani brand, which has 40 hotels in five continents.
"I noticed a trend among millennial and Gen Z travelers in that they really want to kind of switch off and return to the analog," said Elisa Grimaldi, director of PR at Avani Hotels & Resorts. "They want to put their phone down, but they want to have another activity to do, and reading is becoming hugely popular."
The Avani Book Club includes a variety of reader engagement options, Grimaldi explained. Each Avani hotel has a book nook featuring novels set in the hotel's destination as well as a QR code for guests to digitally access Avani's curated Global Reading List. For now, the virtual library has 30 books, two each from 15 of the Avani hotels. Grimaldi said the list will change annually to include other destinations.
Some hotels have additional programming, including a "Sip the Story" food-and-beverage program. Grimaldi said she's also targeting authors and book influencers on Instagram and TikTok to partner for events and programming.
"We want those communities to feel like they also have a space in real life to meet and to develop retreats and events," she said.
While the book club element with the reading nook and QR code is rolled out brand-wide, Grimaldi said individual hotel teams play a role in developing what's offered on each property.
"The beauty of the campaign is that the property teams have taken it and and they run with it and they come up with their own ideas and and reach out to the community that they're in," she said.
The connection within a community is key to Avani as a lifestyle brand, Grimaldi said, and that's especially true for millennials and Gen Z, a demographic Avani targets as key.
As far as growth opportunities, Grimaldi said Minor Hotels could roll out more book-related amenities in its growing portfolio of brands, but one thing she's focused on growing is the Avani Kids Book Club. The goal there is to educate and engage children with the destination they are in — and that works for adults participating in the book club, too.
"It's something that you can enjoy before the trip, and then also after the trip, because you can then read other books that bring back memories of the destination, or give you something to be excited about to go back for," she said.
For Hyatt, the opportunity lies in further developing experiences for its guests' niche interests, and Blair said the company is committed to doing that through its World of Hyatt loyalty program and its Find platform, where loyalty members can book and bid on unique opportunities.
"We want to really evolve — and have made it really World of Hyatt's mission to evolve — from loyalty as a transactional program where you earn, redeem, earn, redeem, to this ongoing emotional connection and relationship with our members," Blair said. "We see them, we anticipate their needs, we create experiences that matter to them. We're building communities and finding ways for them to you know feel more connected into the Hyatt and world of Hyatt ecosystem, and so [Camp Unwritten] is one of many examples of that."