Here’s a chart many of us in the travel industry (myself included) have been using for years.
It’s the classic McKinsey comparison showing that spending on experiences has structurally outpaced spending on goods (usually used to justify the long-term strength of the “experience economy”).
There’s just one thing about this chart that’s hard to ignore once you notice it:
It ends in 2023.
And although it hasn’t been updated in over two years, it’s still widely referenced.
I started questioning whether the experiences-over-goods gap is still widening… (or whether it might actually be narrowing again).
That thought came after reading a strong Skift piece by Rafat Ali himself (link in the comments), in which he cited several credit card spending reports:
– Citizen Bank’s December credit-card tracker shows travel’s share of consumer spending falling from 12% in Jan 2024 to 8% by Dec 2025.
– Bank of America’s Inside Consumers’ Wallets report shows the broader transportation category (which includes travel) declining relatively y-o-y
– And Citigroup’s Q1 2025 earnings call had its CFO, Mark Mason, put it like this: “We’ve seen a shift towards essentials and away from travel and entertainment.”
Three different sources, same directional signal: Travel spending is still growing (roughly ~4% y-o-y), but overall consumer spending grew by more than 8%.
When you grow at half the pace of everything else, you lose wallet share.
Which brings me back to that McKinsey chart.
Based on those data points, there’s a very real chance the experiences-over-goods narrative is due for an update.
So here’s an open question for the industry (and my analyst peers):
Who’s brave enough to update this chart with post-2023 data?