Tourists are increasingly pursuing higher-quality travel, and traditional tourism can hardly meet their needs. As a business that wants to improve its tourism business, why not take a look at experiential travel? It is a deep and personalized way of traveling.
This article will introduce in detail what experiential travel is, starting with its core characteristics. And discuss how to design unique and attractive experience projects. I hope that reading this article can help businesses or managers who want to improve their tourism business.
What Is Experiential Travel?
Experiential travel refers to tourists focusing on a region and conducting in-depth experience and exploration. The difference from traditional tourism is that traditional tourism is more of a sightseeing type of tourism, and will not go deep into a region's culture, life, art, food, and other customs.
Some scenic spots are also constantly creating high-quality experiential travel. For example, the "Exile to Ningguta" in Jingbo Lake Scenic Area in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang. The project is presented in the form of "scenario interpretation + audience interaction", restoring the old city of Ningguta with a full sense of age.
Tanzania has rich wildlife resources and is an excellent destination for experiential travel. Tourists can take an open-top off-road vehicle to observe the living conditions of various rare animals such as lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, etc. in their natural environment. Some experiential luxury travel will also arrange for tourists to camp on the grassland.
According to McKinsey's survey data, 52% of Generation Z spend money on experiences. The experiential travel market is huge, and the global market may exceed 3 trillion US dollars. Experts estimate that by 2025, this sector will grow at an annual rate of more than 14%.
What Do People Want to Get out of Experiential Travel?
What are people looking for when they embark on these luxury experiential trips? Everyone is looking for something different, but there are some commonalities.
- Broaden Your Horizons: Experiential travel offers a different perspective than traditional travel. Through in-depth interactions with local people and culture, you can discover a different way of life.
- Discover Authentic Local Culture: Second-hand descriptions and media-transmitted cultural representations are always incomplete. You can learn flamenco dance in the center of Seville and participate in local fishing activities in a Greek island village. Personal experience is far more vivid and reliable than any documentary or travelogue can convey.
- Improve Mental Health: Experiential travel journeys provide interaction between travelers and locals. When travelers explore new places together, they experience a sense of belonging and purpose. For example, trekking through the Himalayas with a group of like-minded people can build friendships that go far beyond the journey itself. This sense of connection can alleviate loneliness and increase a sense of worthiness.
Inspiring Ideas to Start an Experiential Travel Business
After the above analysis, it can be seen that the market potential of experiential travel is huge. If you want to start your business, please continue reading.
Create a Unique Accommodation Experience
Start with the accommodation environment to deepen the guest experience. Unique accommodation forms can bring completely different feelings. For example, when building a tree house, guests can only reach the tree house by walking through the branches and leaves. Or use natural caves for transformation and add necessary living facilities. The cave walls can display local rock paintings or cultural introductions.
There are also geodesic dome tent resorts with low cost and high return. The tents are made of transparent materials, allowing guests to enjoy the surrounding scenery indoors. The site is selected in a scenic grassland, lakeside, or mountain.
There is a certain degree of difficulty in building tree houses and caves, but building a dome is a simple matter. With a little arrangement and corresponding luxury facilities, you can create a luxury experiential journey.
Create Travel-Inspired Touches
It is not only necessary to provide different forms of accommodation, but also to optimize the accommodation environment. You can start with the decoration of the accommodation.
Take dome accommodation as an example. In the interior decoration of the tent, you can hang some tapestries representing local folk culture, or place some small ornaments of style. The house is decorated with natural wood, with natural elements such as pine cones and feathers.
You can customize some tourist souvenirs with local tourist projects. If it is a forest element, you can provide travelers with wooden bookmarks engraved with tree textures, or canvas bags printed with forest animal patterns.
My last experiential travel was very impressive. I first watched a lion dance performance, during which a professional introduced the historical origins to us. During the performance, the lions also gave us lanterns as gifts. When the trip was about to end, there was a special souvenir sales counter at the exit. There were not only beautiful postcards but also cultural and creative products about lion dance.
The unique accommodation environment and the accompanying travel-themed decorations and customized souvenirs can create an unforgettable experience for tourists.
Actively Connect with the Local Community
Actively establish close ties with local communities to create a richer and deeper travel experience for tourists.
- You can cooperate with local craftsmen to demonstrate the traditional handicraft production process on-site.
- Cooperate with local folk art groups to arrange special performances.
- Cooperate with local farmers to carry out agricultural experience activities.
- Cooperate with local historical and cultural scholars and tour guides to carry out in-depth cultural interpretation activities.
These activities can be designed with tourist interaction links. Lead tourists to these experience activities to deepen their in-depth experience. Let tourists gain a unique travel experience. With the development of social media today, the word-of-mouth effect can be formed. Bring a steady stream of income to your experiential travel business.
Arrange for a Storyteller
Telling a good story is telling your experiential travel business well. A good storyteller can bring travelers into a different perspective and feel different cultural characteristics. Even bring yourself into the experience. In the process of telling the story, guests travel through time and space to connect with the ancients in the culture and have a deeper understanding of the history and culture carried by the cultural relics.
In the experiential travel business, arranging a storyteller for tourists can open the emotional door of the tourists' hearts to the destination, allowing them to transform from a mere spectator to a deep participant.
Final Words
We understand the difference between experiential travel and traditional travel. As a business that wants to develop experiential travel, you can create a unique resort with luxurious facilities and decorations. The most important thing is not to forget the connection with the local culture, which is the soul. Not only should there be a cultural story, but also a good cultural story.
If you, as an owner, don’t know how to build an experiential travel resort, you can contact Shelter Dome. We are a professional company that plans resorts. Shelter Dome integrates industry and trade, and can highly customize your products to realize your ideas. Contact us as soon as possible!
