The hostel bar used to be a reliable setting for a certain kind of story. Two strangers, a foreign city, a few drinks, and an unspoken agreement that whatever happened would stay behind when the flight home took off. That script worked for decades. It worked so well that entire travel cultures formed around it, from backpacker trails in Southeast Asia to beach towns in Central America where the transient nature of visitors made casual encounters feel low-stakes and consequence-free.

Gen Z has read that script and largely decided to pass.

The numbers are hard to argue with. A Times poll of more than 1,000 young people, conducted with YouGov, found that 62% said they and their friends do not commonly have one-night stands. In 2004, 78% of millennials reported that their friends regularly had casual encounters. The drop is steep enough that it cannot be explained by a few outliers or survey bias. Something has changed in how young travelers think about intimacy abroad.

Relationship Goals Look Different Now

Gen Z does not treat travel romance the way older generations did. A Times poll of more than 1,000 young people, conducted with YouGov, found that 62% said they and their friends do not commonly have one-night stands. Only 23% of those aged 18 to 27 reported their friends regularly had casual encounters, compared to 78% of millennials who said the same in 2004.

Connection still matters to this group, but it takes different forms. Some travelers use apps to meet locals, others focus on friendships, and a few might be searching for a sugar daddy or a specific kind of arrangement. According to Skyscanner, 34% of Gen Z say they are more open to meeting people while traveling, though 84% want deeper bonds rather than fleeting ones.

Solo Travel is Up, Hookups Are Down

Nearly 75% of Gen Z travelers planned on taking a solo trip in 2024. That figure alone tells you something about how this generation approaches being away from home. They are not waiting for a partner to book the ticket. They are not relying on group dynamics to create social opportunities.

Going alone means having full control over who you spend time with and how those interactions unfold. For many young travelers, that freedom translates into being more selective about who gets close. A brief encounter at a bar does not hold the same appeal when the rest of your trip involves meaningful solitude that you chose on purpose.

Priceline’s 2025 travel trends report found that Gen Z is 74% more likely than the average traveler to have researched destinations where they could meet new people. They want connection. They are seeking it out. But meeting people and hooking up are not the same activity for this group.

What They Actually Want

The distinction matters. Older generations often conflated travel romance with casual sex. The two overlapped so frequently that they became interchangeable in certain contexts. Gen Z has separated them.

Skyscanner data shows that 74% of this generation uses travel to check out scenes in new cities and spark meaningful connections. Meaningful is the key word. It implies something that lasts past the encounter, or at least feels worth remembering for reasons beyond the physical. The Knot’s 2025 Real Weddings Study found that 27% of couples who married met through dating apps or websites. Apps have become legitimate pathways to lasting relationships, and that legitimacy seems to have affected how young people use them while traveling.

If you can meet your future spouse through a screen, why would a random hookup in Barcelona feel like a necessary part of the trip?

Apps Changed the Equation

Dating apps made meeting people efficient. They also made it traceable. Every match leaves a record. Every conversation can be screenshot. For a generation raised with constant awareness of how their actions might be documented or shared, the spontaneous and anonymous hookup carries risks that previous travelers did not consider.

There is also the simple fact that apps allow you to filter before you meet. You can specify what you want, match with people who want the same, and avoid the ambiguity that used to define hostel common rooms at 2 a.m. That filtering process tends to favor those looking for something more substantial.

The Social Pressure Angle

Millennials grew up hearing that travel should be wild, that their twenties were for stories they would tell at dinner parties later. Gen Z has a different set of pressures. Mental health conversations are more common. Boundaries are discussed openly. The expectation to perform a certain kind of recklessness does not land the same way.

Saying no to a hookup does not require an excuse anymore. It can be stated plainly. That shift in social permission has made it easier for young travelers to follow their actual preferences instead of conforming to what earlier generations expected of them.

It Depends on the Traveler

None of this means hookups have disappeared. They have not. Some Gen Z travelers still seek them out, and certain destinations cater to that crowd as they always have. The difference is in the default assumption. Twenty years ago, the default was that young travelers were open to casual encounters. Now the default leans toward something else, and those who want hookups are more likely to be explicit about it upfront.

Travel romance still exists. It looks different. For Gen Z, it often looks like getting someone’s Instagram instead of their room number, meeting up for coffee in a new city rather than going home together after a bar closes, or using dating apps to find people worth spending real time with. The stories they will tell at dinner parties will sound different from the ones their parents told. Whether that counts as being over it or simply doing it their own way is a question each traveler answers for themselves.