THE AGE OF EXPERIENTIAL TRAVEL

What drives evolved travellers to opt for experiential travel instead of indulging in pure relaxation or being in a state of luxury-induced numbness? What, indeed? It is possibly a primal need to make sense of everything – and in this case – to create meaning of their travels through direct experience and learning. They want their time off to also add some value to their life. They want complete immersion. They want to be part of the landscape, live like a local and reconnect with themselves. In fact, travellers voluntarily go through hardships to learn and gather experiences.

Simply seeing the sights is no longer enough for them. They want to go down the path less travelled and connect with people from other cultures and backgrounds. They want travel to be fun and interesting, not just a blur of places and faces. They want to experience cultures, languages, food and people.

This thought process is slowly gaining momentum so much so that this kind of tourism is becoming a global movement towards experiential learning. In response to this, the market is also creating offbeat and new products that fortunately don’t conform to a budget type. Such products also may or may not have an element of adventure, integration with the local culture and exclusivity. Local cuisine forms a huge part of this.

The understanding of this segment has also given it strong bragging rights. Staying in a luxurious villa with a private pool in Thailand is great but have you experienced the culture by staying in a homestay there? It's less about where you've been and more about what you’ve done.