As travellers seek more unique and immersive experiences, they are prioritising off-the-grid adventures, cultural exchanges, and digital detoxes while sharing genuine connections.
These new priorities have highlighted how experiences mean more than mementoes, reports traveldailynews.com.
Sustainable travel
Sustainability is transforming how people travel and has spurred the development of greener travel options and best practices.
Sustainable travel practices range from choosing modes of transport and accommodation with as low an environmental impact as possible to supporting local businesses. Sustainable travel also supports niche travel segments such as regenerative and community-based travel.
Responsible Travel, an activist travel company, offers a portfolio of travel suppliers that ensure sustainable practices, including community-based tours in Kenya and technologically advanced sustainable accommodation in Zanzibar.
Regenerative travel
Regenerative tours allow travellers to be active drivers of positive change in the world and can entail activities such as taking part in tree-planting, coral reef restoration and volunteering on river and beach clean-ups.
In Jakarta, the Mangrove Paddling Centre now allows tourists to participate in initiatives to clean up, replant, and cultivate the mangroves. These efforts are resulting in the recovery and rehabilitation of the mangroves and creating awareness of the importance of this ecosystem.
Community-based travel
Community-based travel focuses on supporting local and indigenous communities. It can encompass stays at small hotels and guesthouses, serving community-led campaigns, and partaking in initiatives that strengthen local communities.
G Adventures, represented by Development Promotions in the South African market, has a portfolio of 100 indigenous-led tours that allow travellers to engage with businesses focused on enriching communities while providing entertainment and education.
Virtual reality experiences
Another trend emerging as a way to market destinations and offer travellers dream locations from the comfort of their couches is virtual reality (VR) experiences.
This allows travellers, particularly those in the planning process, to scout potential destinations and learn about their unique features as well as the culture and history of locations at a fraction of the cost of the actual trip.
VR is appearing as a popular marketing tool to entice travellers, as metaverse games exploring travel destinations are emerging more frequently. In the last week, the Kingdom of Bhutan and Tokyo were recreated as interactive games on metaverse platforms Sandbox and Roblox, respectively. Furthermore, the Cape Karoo was portrayed on the Roblox platform last year to attract more tourism.
Ancestral journeys
Ancestral journeys offer travellers an intimate means of connecting with their heritage and origins.
These trips allow travellers to explore ancestral homelands or understand family history, often bringing a strong sense of belonging and self-worth.
As genealogical tours become more popular, tour operators specialising in this type of tourism have become more abundant.
Some tour operators now offer genealogical testing to determine traveller-specific ancestral destinations of interest, developing in-depth genealogical tours.
Based on their country’s history, South Africans are most likely to embark on ancestral tours to France, The Netherlands, India, the UK, Ireland and Malaysia.
The most popular genealogical touring companies in these destinations include My Ireland Family Heritage and Ancestral Footsteps, which specialises in the UK and Europe.
Additionally, for destinations with no dedicated ancestral tour operators, Airbnb and 23andMe have partnered to give travellers who have received their ancestry reports a means to search their ancestral destinations while finding suitable accommodation during their stay.
