10 Trending Travel Accessories in 2019

Travel gear is a fast changing industry – each year the same happens over and over again – new things enter the market, the old ones go obsolete as the fashion changes instantly. In this article, I will try to look to the future and check what are the trending travel accessories in 2019.

I came up with the idea for this article at the end of 2018 when I was writing Best Gifts for Travelers Guide. I thought that it would be good to check which of these things are more and more popular and which are losing popularity.

Read on to know shopping trends of travellers in 2019.

Method for Checking the Trending Travel Accessories

Nowadays, most of the people do online research before buying any product. Therefore, all I need is to investigate the keywords related to travel gear.

To check which are the trending travel accessories, I used Google Trends where I was able to see the popularity of the certain keywords over the time on the graph. We will try to see the development up to 5 years back.

Additionally, at the end of each section, I will list examples of travel gear standing behind a certain keyword.

1. Backpacks

Let’s start with one of the most popular travel gear – a backpack. No matter if you go for a backpacking hike or fly in business, it’s always good to have a backpack. So how is with the popularity of keyword: backpack?

Over last 5 years queries for “backpack” keyword to Google almost doubled with peaks around summer. But what’s really interesting is if we will specify the keywords little bit more:

For the last two years, people go crazy for mini backpacks. Starting from summer 2016 the interest in mini backpacks increased 4 times and looks like it will continue. It’s not a case for large backpacks. This is stable over the last years.

Examples of mini backpacks on Amazon:

• JanSport Half Pint Mini Backpack – Bleached Denim
• Fjallraven Kanken Mini Backpack – Sky Blue
• adidas Originals Santiago Mini Backpack, Dust Pink, One Size

Business Backpacks

As I’m more interested in business travels, I wanted to see if somebody is searching for “business backpack” stuff. Well, it looks like yes, and we can add it to my list of trending travel accessories :

Business backpacks are TSA and airplane travel-friendly, lightweight and comfortable. Usually, have USB charging ports and headphones hole.

Examples of business backpacks on Amazon:

• SwissGear Travel Gear 1900 Scansmart TSA Laptop Backpack – 19″
• Kenneth Cole Reaction Colombian Leather Dual Compartment 15.6″ Laptop Backpack (RFID), Black
• eBags Professional Slim Laptop Backpack for Travel, School & Business – Fits 17″ Laptop – Anti-Theft – (Heathered Graphite)

Sling Backpacks

Next, let’s see what about sling backpacks:

It’s also one of the trending travel accessories.

This is the type of backpack I’m using personally. I just love my SwissGear sling bag – I have it always with me and I have all my necessary stuff always with me.

My 8 years old daughter recently told me that I’m always prepared because I have all these weird backpacks, bags, cases and there is everything inside that I ever need… true 🙂

Examples of sling backpacks on Amazon:

• Sling Bag, Large Crossbody Backpack With USB Charging Port Black
• Sling Bag Backpack, One Strap Multipurpose Daypack
• SEEU 32L Oversized Sling Backpack, Gym Backpack

2. Travel Pillow

Yes, it’s possible to survive 10 hours long-haul flight without travel pillow… but it’s challenging. It seems that more people start to think this way as it looks that travel pillows are among trending travel accessories and will be still in 2019:

For me, it’s understandable that interest in such products is growing fast as this increases the travel comfort a lot.

Lately, I’ve been using the neck support – an alternative travel pillow:

It’s a plastic support covered with plush material. To use it, all you have to do is to wrap it around your neck and you can sleep in any position. It is very portable – you can wrap it around the handle of your carry-on bag and wash in the washing machine.

Examples of travel pillows on Amazon:

• Trtl Pillow – Scientifically Proven Super Soft Neck Support Travel Pillow – Machine Washable (Grey)
• Cabeau Evolution Cool Travel Pillow- The Best Air Circulating Head and Neck Memory Foam Cooling Travel Pillow – Black
• Everlasting Comfort 100% Pure Memory Foam Neck Pillow Travel Kit with Ultra Plush Velour Sleep Mask and Earplugs

3. Powerbanks

This one surprised me little bit:

I thought that power banks will be one of the most trending travel accessories but it seems it reached the top popularity at the end of 2015 and since then the interest is more-less at the same level.

In fact today we want to make use of quick charge feature in our smartphones so we are not looking for power banks but for fast charging power bank:

Bingo! This one is trending as hell.

Examples of fast charging power banks on Amazon:

• Mophie 10,050mAh Encore Portable Power Bank with Built-in Type-C USB Cable
• Portable Charger, Xiaomi Mi Slim Power Bank Pro 10000mAh, 18W Fast Charging
• Anker PowerCore Speed 10000mAh, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Portable Charger, Compatible with PowerIQ, Power Bank for Samsung, iPhone, iPad and More

4. Noise Cancelling Headphones

When I started to travel at work I always got off the plane with a headache after a long flight. It was like that each time I took the long-haul flight. Then, I bought the noise-canceling headphones. And it was like a discovery for me. Using noise canceling phones I was like a newborn after even 13 hours flights.

Headaches were caused by noise during the flight – noise in the cabin during take-off and landing can reach 105 decibels (dB) and maintain the level of 85 dB during the cruising flight. It’s enough to cause temporary hearing problems and make a headache.

Therefore I’m not surprised that noise canceling headphones are one of the trending travel accessories and Bose headphones are becoming more and more popular:

As you can see, this product is highly seasonal. It’s crazy popular at the end of November and December – this could be a really great gift for the travelers in your family.

Examples of noise canceling headphones on Amazon:

• Bose QuietComfort 35 (Series II) Wireless Headphones, Noise Cancelling, with Alexa voice control – Black
• Sony WH1000XM3 Wireless Noise Canceling Over Ear Headphones, Black (WH-1000XM3/B) (2018 model)
• Philips SHB9850NC/27 Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones, Black

5. Travel Adapters

Travel adapters, or at least plug adapters are still among trending travel accessories but the trend is weakening:

For me it’s not a big surprise. Few years ago if you forgot your plug adapter it could cause some inconvenience when you wanted to charge your electronics. Nowadays majority of airports, hotels, cars and offices have USB sockets, so it’s pretty simple now – you just plug your USB charging cable and that’s it.

Examples of travel adapters on Amazon:

• SKROSS PRO PLUS USB World Adapter Dual USB White 1.302500
• Pac2Go Universal Travel Adapter with Quad USB + USB-C Charger – All-in-One with Fast Charging
• International Travel Adapter for EU, UK, US, USA, AU, Europe & Asia

6. Smartwatches

I remember that a few years ago there was a discussion about smartwatches. Some people were saying that it is wrong direction and wearables will not succeed on the market… Well, it seems that they were all wrong as smartwatch became in the last two years one of the most trending travel accessories:

You can also see the strong seasonality – people love to buy it as a Christmas Presents.

Examples of smartwatches on Amazon:

• Samsung Gear S3 Frontier Smartwatch (Bluetooth), SM-R760NDAAXAR
• Samsung Gear Sport Smartwatch (Bluetooth), Black, SM-R600NZKAXAR
• Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS, 38mm) – Space Gray Aluminium Case with Black Sport Band

7. Kindle

I love books but there is one problem with books and traveling – packing issues. If you want to take more than two books for a longer trip, you are limited with your luggage capacity. Therefore I love e-book readers.

I thought that people love it too – especially Kindle. It was kinda surprising for me when I’ve noticed that keyword Kindle has lost its popularity by half. In 2014 it was one of the best gifts for Christmas and now it seems that the market is saturated:

Anyway I’ve decided to add Kindle to the list as it’s trending travel gear but in negative way.

Kindle on Amazon:

• All-new Kindle Paperwhite – Now Waterproof with 2x the Storage – Includes Special Offers

8. Tablets

Do you still remember devices called tablets? It looks like rather not too good:

Another very popular gadget in the past which lost its throne… Nowadays smartphones have big enough screens and powerful technology inside to launch 3D games, work with mobile office apps and take photos or videos like a professional camera.

Like in case of Kindle – I’ve decided to put it on the list of trending travel accessories as it is trending but negative.

Let’s see what examples of tablets we have on Amazon:

• Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7-Inch, 32GB Tablet (Black, SM-T820NZKAXAR)
• Apple iPad (Wi-Fi, 128GB) – Space Gray (Latest Model)
• Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 – HD 8″ Android Tablet Computer (Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8009, 2GB RAM, 16GB SSD) ZA090094US

9. Travel cases

Travel case enables you to take control over your cords, chargers, memory sticks, tokens and all other small stuff necessary while traveling. As you can see travel case is slowly becoming more and more popular:

I keep mine witch me each time I go out of my house. I just keep it all the time in my sling backpack.

Examples of travel cases on Amazon:

• BAGSMART Electronic Organizer Travel Universal Cable Organizer Electronics Accessories Cases for Cable, Charger, Phone, USB, SD Card, Black
• BAGSMART Double-Layer Travel Cable Organizer Electronics Accessories Cases for Cables, iPhone, Kindle Charge, Camera Charger, MacBook Charger, Black
• Patu Roll Up Electronics Accessories Travel Gear Organizer Case, Portable Universal External Batteries Hard Drives Cables Cosmetics Kit Bag, Navy

10. Apple AirPods

This one is killer trending accessory. Apple AirPods are trending as hell – it looks like one of the most trending travel accessories. Every investor would like to see their stock market shares growing in a similar way. Definitively AirPods will become more popular in 2019.

Anyway, let’s see AirPods on Amazon:

• Apple AirPods

Final Words

All right, it’s time to finish. That was fun searching for that trends.

Let me know in comments what do you think about it – did you expect these trends?

Take care and hear you soon.

Graphs: Google Trends

Featured Image: Pixabay.com