When the pandemic prompted a desire for more fulfilling lives combined with a younger generation of workers and a rise in different ways of working, it created a new kind of traveller. A traveller who seeks opportunities to give back and expects trips to reflect their values and lifestyle choices. Increasingly, that means prioritising experiences, authenticity and longer stays instead of frequent flights, shopping trips and whistle-stop sightseeing.
The data tells the story. In 2023, TripAdvisor reported that 180mn more travellers used its site to look for experiences than in 2022. And in a survey conducted by the Royal Commission for AlUla, 83 per cent of travellers say they want to experience destinations like a local.
The survey reveals that travellers are excited to learn about the culture of their destination, with the experiences that are most in demand including tours of cultural sites by local guides, visits to cultural institutions, learning about heritage preservation and immersive experiences of a destination.
Authentic experiences can leave a lasting impact
This growing desire for authentic, immersive experiences could enable travel companies or hotels to increase sustainability, says Gloria Rebeca Guevara Manzo, Chief Special Advisor to Saudi Arabia’s tourism ministry. She gives the example of food. When visitors are interested in sampling local cuisine, it can be sourced locally. This both lowers the carbon footprint associated with food transport and generates local incomes. “At the same time, you reduce the cost, and you reduce the food waste,” says Guevara. “And you have engagement with the local community because travellers are tasting their produce and their food.”
The Blue Yonder, which specialises in immersive and cultural travel experiences that also benefit local communities, uses food as a way for tourists to feel like they are participating in environmental or community regeneration. Founder Gopinath Parayil says the company offers travellers to southern India a dining experience surrounded by the fishing nets of the local fishing community, whose catch is diminishing as a result of climate change. “For the traveller, it's a nice dinner,” says Parayil. “But it has also created a climate change adaptability project for the community. We’re turning that crisis into an opportunity for people to earn more money.”
Art and culture are another way to provide powerful experiences for travellers. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the annual Desert X festival in AlUla celebrates ancient cultures, contemporary art and nature. It is an open-air art exhibition in which internationally renowned artists create large-scale works of art that respond to the landscape around them.
Technology is removing barriers to immersive travel
Digital communications are helping travellers to explore longer, more immersive forms of tourism. “It means that more people have the opportunity to work abroad or to travel more,” says Myron Flouris, Greece’s Secretary General for Tourism Policy and Development. “And of course, they're trying to find new experiences in order to have a better life balance.”
Tourism advisor and author Anita Mendiratta agrees. “They enjoy staying put – the desire to see six places in one trip has gone,” says Mendiratta. “People would rather have six times the depth of immersion.”
The Royal Commission for AlUla survey finds that policymakers must do more to enable travellers to take advantage of immersive forms of travel and to stay for longer periods of time. One in four of its respondents say they would take fewer, longer trips – if it was easier.
So policymakers need to find ways to encourage ‘slow travel’. Some governments, for instance, are harnessing the post-pandemic surge in remote working and encouraging long-stay visitors by introducing so-called digital nomad visas. These allow people who want to combine work and leisure over a long period to stay in a country for several months.
This is an example of how policymakers can underpin new, immersive forms of tourism and make it possible for the industry to follow up with products and services. “Government is the enabler,” says Guevara. “But the private sector must support those initiatives.”