Experiential Travel Trends: Why People Travel

Experiential travel is when you travel to experience what your heart desires and not mainly for the destination. Travel has taken a new meaning and people are now focussing more on Experiential Vacation.

Before dwelling on that subject it is important to understand why people travel.

Why do People Travel?

People travel for different reasons. The most common answer was to experience that they crave for which is not available in daily life. Other answers being traveling to learn, earn, discover, and some to escape from daily routine life.

I call this the 5 Es of travel – Educate, Earn, Escape, Explore and Experience

1. Travel to Educate Themselves

People take experiential vacation to learn something new. It could be a new skill or the area’s history, different cultures, cuisines and ways of life. Some even make the effort to understand how our lives are connected and what more can be done to improve.

I remember Mahaveer Swami who is renowned artist saying students from different parts of India come to him to learn Bikaner Miniature Art which is almost 500 years old.

2. Travel to Earn

People travel great distances to earn, which is the most common thing. Some travel for their bread and butter and some for inspiration. Artists travel for inspiration to pursue art or hobby. Artists travel to scenic places to paint or sketch the scenes they see, which they later sell. In such cases they invest on travel to earn back later.

3. Travel to Explore

Travelers like Al-Biruni in AD 1022 and Arab traveler Ibn Battuta in AD 1335 are perfect examples of travellers who set out to explore. That urge has been there from ancient times and so many new countries have been discovered thus.

4. Travel to Escape

Many of us travel to escape today. It is like seeking out the escape route to busy life, from concrete jungles to nature’s lap, to escape from responsibilities and the boring routine life. A change is all they seek from the short spell of travel.

5. Travel to Experience

Today many tourists set out for experiencing the journey and not just journey. They seek an active and participatory role in achieving a deep and engaging experience of the destination’s attractions.

New experiences bring new look to life, new perspective, new meanings. These new experiences during travel shape and define us. When you experience you actually connect a lot more than just visiting it or have cursory look at it.

Art with clay – most loved experience of children

Experiential Travel Trends

People seek experiences of different kinds. The kinds that is not easily available in places where you stay. It is also referred to as Immersion Travel. People seek experience in local food, culture, art, craft, adventure, thrill, spiritualism, social life, nature, shopping, and history.

Statistics state that 65% of tourists are looking for new experiences rather than just visit and relax at a place.

This activity based travel is more of a market trend now. Travel industry is making business out of it. Hotels and restaurants are adapting to the rise in experiential travel trends.

Mentioned below are the various experiential tourism trends that has cropped up in India, Europe and south east Asia in the past few years.

Culinary Tourism

Food is a vital part of all tour experiences. Basically culinary tour includes exploration of food either at markets or at hotels or by cooking at the destination. I have indulged in exploring night markets of Singapore, street food of Penang Malaysia.

Culinary tourism has evolved to different forms.

Experiential Travel Culinary Tourism Trying out Goan Fish curry

Experiential Local Cuisine Cooking

This is not a cookery class. It is a kind of workshop you can say. Many 5 star hotels offer this cooking experience and try out a recipe preferably their fav dish from their menu. I had this cooking experience in Alila Diwa a 5 star hotel of Goa.

There is this tour agency Unventured – they offer South Indian Home Cooking experience at a local’s home. Everything about the dish of local cuisine is first explained, and then taken to the markets to buy some ingredients as well. Then have a plantain leaf meal with the hosts.

Experiential Dining

This is one of the commonest thing hotel industry is doing. They have realized there is lot of potential to earn money by providing unique experiences along with food. Good service and tasty food alone don’t satiate diners any longer. They look forward to a memory that can carry back home along with their belly full food.

Some hotels you can go to are: Suryagarh Resort in Jaisalmer, Narendra Bhawan in Bikaner, JW Marriott in Jaipur. They take you to real locations like dinner at night in desert, lunch by the side of an oasis, or satvik food in a temple, or breakfast with peacocks in a fort.

• Mohan Mahal in JW Marrott has replicated Sheesh Mahal of Amer Fort
• Rajput Hospitality in Nahargarh Fort
• Lunch in Rampuria Haveli Bikaner
• Satvik Food in Kiradu Temple Barmer
• Hyatt at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh too gives unique experience of having evening tea at Kangra Fort and watch the sunset. It is well planned.

Bangalore has some themed restaurants which give unique experience with the ambiance they have.

Experiential Travel Destination Dining Sundowner in Desert

Character Dining

Character dining is one of the latest experiential travel trends that is a major hit with kids visiting Disneyland. Their fav Disney character comes to the place of dining.

Adventure Tourism

Tourism boards have for a long time been offering activities like as skydiving, trekking, and scuba diving. Only recently it has got categorized as adventure tourism.

Mountaineering, trekking, bungee jumping, mountain biking, cycling, canoeing, scuba diving, snorkeling,  rafting, kayaking, zip-lining, paragliding, hiking, exploring, sand boarding, caving and rock climbing…. there are so many adventure activities that now the whole experience has been classified into 2 groups.

Soft adventure and Hard adventure tourism

Soft adventure is the term used to describe the type of adventure tourism that requires little or no experience and is low risk, while hard tourism requires greater levels of skill and incorporates more of significant risk.

In Gili Islands of Lombok they allow snorkeling and scuba diving. Goa has river rafting. This tiny coastal state of India offers fine river rafting of class 2 to 3 rapids with stunning forest backdrops.

Cultural Experiential Tourism

This kind of tourism is tailored to fit in cultural attractions, artistic events and shows. Many tourism boards are highlighting the fact that tourists can acquire new experiences like weaving a piece of fabric, or a piece of pottery or may be an art or jewelry piece that you can carry back home. During festivals locals can help in pandal hopping for tourists.

Their selling point is: such experiences meet intellectual needs and individual growth of the traveler. The whole episode is just an experience, it is not full-fledged course. Time duration for these kinds of experiences is very short, as less as 1 hour to may be around 4 to 5 hours.

In GWK, Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park, they provide costume and allow you to participate in dance. You get to learn a step or two. Dance and music is essential part of their culture.

In Banyumulek village of Lombok you can get to piece of pottery to bring it back home.

Spiritual Experiential Travel

It is a kind of cultural experiential tourism. People, especially the ones from cities are increasingly looking to develop their own spirituality. Vipassana, 10 days of silence and meditation in such retreats.

Statistics state that 60% of domestic tourism, i.e… in India, is religion based. Amarnath Yatra, Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is some of the most popular ones.

Marriage – Can you believe people travel to get married?

This is not about destination wedding.

Marrying for the second time, meaning already married couples come to India to reaffirm their mutual commitment for the second time. Travel to get married in India as per Hindu customs.

Ex British Prime Minister Theresa May visited Someshwara Temple Ulsoor in Bangalore in 2016. They exchanged garlands and reaffirmed their marriage for the second time.

Voluntourism

Volunteer Tourism is a trend of traveling to a place they wish to tour and also help local people there. Sometimes it is for charitable cause, may be to teach locals some new language or art.

Lot of opportunities exist today. You can match your choice destination with the kind of service required there, like teaching a language, art or skill. Tourists can interact with local inhabitants.

Yet another advantage is it is flexible so you choose your time slots to volunteer, rest of the time may be travel around.

There are some NGOs which offer such opportunities. Some of the projects are paid ones too, may not be highly paid ones but you can surely afford a budget travel with it.

A word of caution: It is not easy and rosy as you may think it is. You have to do all things related to your survival there. So take it up only if you think you can honor your commitment there.

Experiential Travel – Volunteer to Teach an art

Rural or Village Tourism

Ambassadors of Bodoland conducts good village tour. You actually get to interact with a family in the village. We visited Kalaigaon Village in Bodoland. It works well with the family that volunteer to host such tour groups.

This kind of experiential tourism works well for both parties. The family who is hosting gets paid and the tourists get a memorable experience.

Serai Bandipur near Bangalore too gives a village tour. You get that bullock cart experience and get to see the farming methods and also pet the farm animals.

Bullock cart experience Bandipur Serai – Experiential Travel Trends

Slum Tourism

This involves visiting impoverished areas. Earlier cities like London Manhattan organized this. It is now conducted in slums of Dharavi, India.

In 2019, slum tourism was rated as favorite tourist experience that even beat the earlier choice – Taj Mahal. This is according to travel site TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards.

One should not mistake it to be poverty tourism. Though they still live in slums, people living there show what people are capable of achieving despite adverse conditions.

Most of the experiential tours are conducted by Dharavi residents themselves. It is more like a community tourism. No photography is permitted.

It can cost 900 to 1500INR per person depending on whether you want to have lunch in a Dharavi family home after the morning tour.

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Prison Tourism

This is yet another offshoot of experiential travels where you can visit prisons that showcase how the condition or the facilities are in prisons. But what exactly a jail inmate goes through has always intrigued even the most normal minds.

Not everybody wants to experience it, which is why probably none of the prison tourism ventures of India were a success.

I had toured the prison of Doge’s Palace in Venice, Italy. Just seeing itself was not a very pleasant experience. It is hard for me to imagine spending a night there.

Prison Tourism

The Sangareddy Jail originally built in 1796 by Nizam Ali Khan of Hyderabad was designed to house the Nizam’s horses. The building was later made into a jail under the British colonial administration.

Telengana Tourism has converted this 220-year-old defunct prison for the ‘experience the jail’ project. Tourists can have a sleepover at the place.

Viyyur Central prison in Thrissur district of Kerala too had similar plans.

Ghost Tourism

Guided tour to haunted destinations is another of experiential travel trends that has some seekers in India. It is for travellers who want to experience travel in haunted areas. Have you been to any?

They allow guest participation. More enthusiasts among the participants can have a sleepover to experience real paranormal activities with ghost detecting devices.

In Rajasthan there is one conducted by Suryagarh Resort. They have their famous Chudail Trail, where they take you on a midnight drive to all the spots in the surrounding area where it is believed the spirit of the chudail (female ghost) resides.

Experiential Travel Ghost Tourism Kuldhara village

Paliwal cemeteries near the Khaba, the Shamshaan Ghat where cremated ashes of local chieftains and women who died in sati are buried, the burial ground near Jaziya Talao, the abandoned ghost town of Kuldhara and the dark lake where insatiated ghosts roam in the dead of night.

Purulia Tourism did something similar in Begukodar, 260km from Kolkata. The railway station there is haunted – so the locals say.

Conclusion

Experiential travel trends exist in both budget and luxury travel categories. Such focussed experiential tourism initiatives make travel memorable and interesting. It will be interesting to watch how hotel and tourism industry will cater to the different demands of travellers and improve on experiential tourism!

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