Think back to your last trip away and what you had planned it around – was it the destination or the experience? What might once have been a quick and easy answer is now much more nuanced, with experiences increasingly becoming a priority for travellers and a key travel trend this year.
What experiences are people prioritising?
‘Experiences’ encompass everything from festivals to culinary delights, and people have vastly different preferences when it comes to the experiences they enjoy. While one person might travel for the delicious flavours of Thailand, another might plan a trip around their music taste, letting Coachella take them to LA or travelling to another country to see their favourite artist.
Culinary experiences are a great example of this shift as they continue to grow as a priority for travellers. Rather than simply choosing a country and planning an itinerary around the location, people are increasingly asking themselves: ‘what do I want to do while I’m there?’ and ‘how do I want to feel?’. Forbes finds that 75% of tourists now qualify as culinary travellers, with the importance of food and drink rates at an all-time high of 8.2 out of 101.
Alongside this, artists and music festivals are driving reasons to travel more and more. As artists tour and festivals pop up in different locations, tickets are notoriously hard to get hold of. A good example of this is when we saw Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour become a cultural phenomenon, where fans travelled abroad to see her perform in countries where they had managed to secure tickets, letting their interest in seeing her perform determine the destination.
Why the shift in behaviour?
At the heart of this shift in travel trends is the move towards emotion-led travel, where emotional fulfilment and ‘feeling’ drive travel choices. Experiences and feelings are the things you keep with you once you leave a destination, and people are starting to realise that the ‘tick-box’ culture of travelling isn’t necessarily the most fulfilling way to travel.
People are searching for experiences that mean something to them, whatever that might look and feel like. When people know that seeing an artist or eating an authentic meal is going to bring them joy and satisfaction, it can be a much stronger reason to travel than simply picking a country they’ve never visited before and deciding to explore it.
What this means for the travel industry
This move towards hobby-led travel presents an opportunity to market destinations through the unique experiences they offer, rather than relying solely on their reputation, landmarks or scenery. It also emphasises the importance of the travel sector prioritising storytelling and connecting with travellers, making them feel something and crave the experiences on offer.
At Hatch, we help brands turn shifting travel trends into campaigns that help connect with audiences at the right time.
Interested in learning more about traveller behaviour change and mapping your customer journey? Get in touch at hello@hatch.group
Make sure to also download the full Checked In: The Modern Traveller report to explore these trends in full.
