– About Experiential Travel:
– Emphasizes different areas of local life: culinary, culture, history, shopping, nature, or social life.
– Basis for a holistic travel experience by deeply understanding a destination’s culture, people, and history.
– Traveler connects with locals for guidance on experiencing a place.
– Focuses on inspirational, personalized, or self-discovery paths.
– Examples include driving a tank, flying an airplane, mining for gold, historical reenactments, and firefighting simulations.
– History:
– Term mentioned in books and publications from 1985.
– Popular market trend in recent years.
– In 2017, 65% of US travelers preferred new experiences over feeling rested.
– See Also:
– Adventure travel.
– Culinary tourism.
– Cultural tourism.
– Volunteer tourism.
– References:
– New York Times New Frontier for Tourists: Your Home.
– Washington Post article on new hotel booking site and travel trends.
– Peak Management Company’s report on the rise of experiential travel.
– Google Books Insights in strategic retail management.
– Skift Research on U.S. Experiential Traveler Trends 2018.
– Future Trends:
– Transformative travel predicted as a trend in 2017.
– Experiential travel seen as potentially transformative.
– African safaris highlighted as experiential travel.
– Experiential travel’s influence on retail management.
– Potential life-changing impact of experiential travel.
Experiential travel, also known as immersion travel, is a form of tourism in which people focus on experiencing a country, city or particular place by actively and meaningfully engaging with its history, people, culture, food and environment. It can often be transformative. Therewith the concept is based on very similar mechanisms as for example experiential education, experiential knowledge, experiential interior design, and experiential marketing.