Leisure travel rising among road trippers and jetsetters

While Sentient doesn’t ask passengers the nature of their trips, in general they assume travel on Friday through Sunday are leisure trips. Travel on those days was up 7 percent for 2013 over 2012.

The rise was slightly higher, 9 percent, when comparing the final two quarters of the year, he said. Frequent destinations for those trips have been Nantucket, Mass., Aspen, Colo., and Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean. Overall, he estimates that the private jets are used 40 percent of the time for leisure rather than business travel.

“Almost counterintuitively, high-end luxury, and not just in travel, grew during the recession,” Sebastian Tomich, vice president of advertising at The New York Times said during an interview at The New York Times Travel Show. Overall, leisure spending declined during recession but is returning right now, he said.

This year’s travel show attracted exhibitors from a record 150 countries. Exotic adventure travel, family trips, bespoke travel and social sharing are all big themes for this year, said Michael Carroll, the director of advertising for travel, spirits and consumer packaged goods sectors at The New York Times.

(Read more: Tour pros hopeful U.S. may ease Cuba travel rules)

Social media especially has created a new kind of friendly competition when it comes to posting the coolest vacation pictures.”Keeping up with the Joneses through social sharing” is another travel trend, Carroll said.

—By CNBC’s Amy Langfield. Follow her on Twitter at
@AmyLangfield.

Follow Road Warrior on Twitter at
@CNBCtravel.