Americans are still traveling, and by most forecasts they’re doing plenty of it. IBISWorld estimates 717 million domestic trips by U.S. residents in 2026[1]. What seems to be changing is where some of those trips land, with smaller cities and secondary destinations getting more attention than they used to.
One caution first. No single dataset shows travelers dropping Big City A for Small Town B. The evidence below comes from visitation counts, search trends and traveler surveys, and each city on this list shows a different mix of those signals. Read it as a pattern worth watching, not a verdict.
1. Las Vegas
Las Vegas has the clearest numbers. The city recorded 38.5 million visitors in 2025, well below 2024’s 41.7 million.[2] Every month of 2025 had fewer visitors than the same month a year earlier.[3] The LVCVA’s chief executive pointed to two factors: people staying home to make their money go farther, and federal policies making travel more expensive for international visitors.[4]
The spending mix is telling too. Sightseeing spending fell 20 percent between 2024 and 2025, while gambling spending rose 11 percent.[3] Visitors who do show up seem to be cutting optional extras. Meanwhile, a Kayak survey found that 84 percent of Gen Z and millennial travelers would rather visit a rural area or smaller city than a major hub.[5] That survey isn’t about Las Vegas specifically, and the visitation data doesn’t say where the missing visitors went. Still, the two trends point the same way.
2. Seattle
Seattle’s story is mostly about one group of travelers. Visit Seattle reported 39.6 million visitors to Seattle and King County in 2025, a 0.9 percent decrease from a year earlier.[6] That’s a small dip overall. Underneath it, 1.1 million Canadians visited Seattle last year, a 36 percent drop in both visitors and spending.[7] Visit Seattle said domestic travelers largely offset the international decline, leaving overall visitation relatively flat.[7]
So Seattle isn’t being abandoned, but its mix of visitors is shifting. For travelers who do come, a smaller neighbor offers a different pitch. A spring 2026 roundup noted that in Tacoma, travelers can spend part of a weekend along the waterfront and part in the Museum District without the trip feeling spread out.[1] I couldn’t find Tacoma visitation figures showing a gain from Seattle’s slowdown, so treat Tacoma as a plausible alternative rather than a proven beneficiary.
3. Boston
Boston shows up in search data as a place losing some momentum. According to The Points Guy’s 2026 trends report, using Points Path data, large U.S. cities including Atlanta, Washington, Chicago and Boston were among the domestic destinations[8] where search volume fell year over year. Points Path is an award flight search tool, so this reflects a specific, points-minded audience and not all travelers.
Further up the coast, Expedia’s look at the fastest growing U.S. destinations lists Portsmouth, New Hampshire, up 440 percent in searches.[9] The report credits its historic downtown, waterfront setting and New England charm, especially for shorter cultural getaways and weekend trips.[9] Search growth isn’t the same as bookings, and big percentage jumps from a small base can look dramatic. Still, it’s a good example of the kind of nearby, smaller stop that’s drawing curiosity.
4. Los Angeles
Los Angeles is a harder case, since the data here is about where interest is growing, not where Los Angeles is shrinking. Expedia’s list includes Orange County, California, up 150 percent in searches, with a mix of beaches, attractions and revitalized cultural districts.[9] The report says it’s drawing renewed attention as travelers explore coastal regions beyond larger West Coast cities.[9]
A broader 2026 travel trends piece describes a gradual diversification of coastal itineraries, with more visitors combining marquee stops with side trips to nearby small cities or inland areas.[10] That suggests many people are adding nearby places to a Los Angeles trip, not necessarily replacing it. Even so, it’s the same instinct showing up in a different form.
5. Washington, D.C.
Washington is still pulling in huge crowds, so “skipping” is a strong word here. Visitor growth flatlined in 2025, edging up by just 20,000 travelers to 27.2 million.[11] International arrivals declined by 4 percent.[11] Skift reported that National Guard troops deployed since August 2025 spooked some overseas visitors, and repeated federal shutdowns and mass firings of federal workers gutted business travel demand.[11]
Washington also appears on that Points Path list of domestic destinations with falling search volume. None of the sources I found names a specific smaller destination that’s absorbing D.C.’s visitors. What they do show is a broader preference for easier planning. Coverage of spring 2026 travel cites easier bookings and lighter crowds[1] as the practical reasons travelers are choosing smaller cities.
Taken together, these five cities show different pressures: cost worries in Las Vegas, lost Canadian visitors in Seattle, shifting search interest in Boston and Los Angeles, and a shaky year for international and business travel in Washington. None of them is emptying out. Las Vegas is the only one with a clear, sizable drop in total visitors, and even there the cause is more about money and policy than a rush toward small towns.
What ties the story together is a traveler who’s more selective about cost, crowds and effort. A smaller place an hour or two away can look like a smarter weekend. The big cities will likely stay popular, but they may have to work harder to keep it that way.
