A growing number of Americans are doing something that would have seemed unusual a generation ago: they’re using travel to decide where to live.
According to a 2024 poll from the Monmouth University Polling Institute, 34 percent of Americans say they would move to another country if they were free to do so; this triples the share of people who said the same in the 1970s. More recently, Gallup found that 20 percent of Americans would like to move abroad permanently if given the opportunity.
For travel advisors, that shift is showing up in client conversations.
What starts as a vacation often turns into questions about residency visas, healthcare, housing, taxes, and whether life might be better somewhere else. “Sometimes the best trips don’t just change your scenery,” says Lisa Harris Boyd, owner of Life Is Short Adventures. “They can change your whole life.”
From Vacation to Relocation
For Fiona, it started with a 2018 trip to Malta.
She had planned to spend time exploring capital Valletta, walking the beaches, and generally being a tourist. Instead, she found herself paying attention to things she had never noticed on previous vacations:
- How groceries were much affordable here.
- Public transportation outpaced what she saw in the U.S.
- People seemed less stressed day to day.
- What would daily life here look like for her?
“When I got home, I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” she says. “I realized I wasn’t planning my next vacation. I was imagining a different life.”
Eight years later, that vacation became Fiona’s inspiration for a permanent move. She and her partner bought their dream home on the island and will relocate there in late 2026.
Stories like hers are becoming increasingly common.
Travel has always inspired people. Today, it’s also helping people answer a much bigger question: Where do I want to spend the next chapter of my life?
Sometimes the Move Comes First
Not every relocation journey starts with a vacation.
For Rachel, the process began with a test.
Rachel took the Expatsi Test, a data-driven assessment that matches users with their top countries, in late 2023. When she factored in her wants like healthcare, cost of living, safety, and visa options, she narrowed her list to three possible destinations: Spain, Mexico, and Portugal.
Only then did she book a scouting trip with Expatsi—a 3-week tour of Portugal and Spain that viewed over 20 destinations.
“This wasn’t a vacation,” Rachel says. “I was interviewing countries.” Instead of visiting tourist attractions, she toured neighborhoods, visited grocery stores, rode public transportation, and met with local experts about visa options and taxes.
By the end of the trip, she felt confident in moving forward with Spain. She spent the next 18 months getting her affairs in order back in Texas before moving to Barcelona in December 2025.
Industry observers say this kind of “scouting trip” is becoming more common as Americans approach international moves more strategically. It allows curious travelers to see new places like a local would, walking neighborhood streets and sourcing daily necessities. Travel shifts like this have contributed to more Americans leaving the U.S. in 2025 than had done so in any year since the Great Depression.
Travel Advisors Are Seeing the Shift
For many clients, travel advisors are among the first professionals they talk to about living abroad.
“As a luxury travel agency, we believe that travel has the power to create moments that matter,” says Boyd. Clients still want recommendations on hotels and activities, but they’re also asking me about long-term rentals, healthcare systems, neighborhoods, and what everyday life looks like. The challenge, many advisors say, is that relocation involves far more than typical travel planning.
Clients may eventually need help understanding visas, residency requirements, taxes, healthcare options, banking, shipping, real estate, and dozens of other moving parts.
Travel advisors know destinations, but most aren’t immigration attorneys or relocation specialists. Clients need trusted resources when those conversations go beyond travel.
A New Tool for a New Type of Client
That’s one reason Expatsi recently launched its affiliate program for travel advisors.
The company, which helps Americans move abroad through destination matching, scouting trips, relocation planning, and expert guidance, created the program in response to growing demand from travel professionals looking for ways to support relocation-minded clients.
“We kept hearing from travel advisors who were already having these conversations,” says Jen Barnett, co-founder and CEO of Expatsi. “They were helping people fall in love with places around the world. Then those clients would come back and say, ‘I think I want to live there.’ We wanted to give advisors a trusted place to send them.”
Through the program, travel advisors can connect clients with relocation resources while earning commissions on qualifying purchases. More importantly, Barnett says, it allows advisors to continue serving clients long after a vacation ends. “Travel advisors help people discover the world,” she says. “Sometimes that discovery changes someone’s life. It certainly changed mine and my husband’s. Our 2022 scouting trip to Mexico set us on a whole new course to living abroad.”
The Future of Travel May Be Relocation
As interest in living abroad continues to grow, the line between travel and relocation is becoming increasingly blurred. For some travelers, the perfect trip continues to be a lazy week on the beach. For others, it’s the first step toward a completely different future.
And increasingly, travel advisors are helping clients navigate both. Travel advisors interested in learning more about the Expatsi affiliate program can visit here for details.
