Authentic Experiences Gain Traction in Tourism
The shift toward a greater focus on experiences in travel outlined in an RRN trends report earlier this year continues to unfold in the consumer sector as tour operators in more off-beat destinations focus on authentic local experiences.Think experiences, and many imagine sky diving, deep-sea fishing, para-sailing, etc. Today experiences increasingly mean opportunities to discover the authentic lives, cultures, cuisines, nature, and histories of the people where they are visiting.
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Reports an article by Alex Graham in Huddle, Newfoundland, Can.-based tour operator Kefi Travel has pivoted to “customer experiences in the new travel landscape.”The company has launched an “experience that lets travelers live their journey not through the window of a tour bus, but through words, song, and photography. “These 10-12 day trips are not just about putting yourself in a different place and passing through the sights, they’re about becoming a part of the place that you’re visiting. Facilitated by a storyteller, musician, and a photographer, these experiences allow for an intimate understanding of the journey, like having the flexibility to stop and take some great shots of that double rainbow spotted on the Irish landscape.”
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Across the Atlantic in the Mediterranean Sea, Elba Island, where Napoleon Bonaparte lived in exile for 300 days with surprisingly long-term impact on the island's infrastructure development, has launched a "Napoleon Experience: a new series of tourist-experiential travel experiences that will allow visitors to go back 200 years when the great Corsican Bonaparte ruled Elba Island.”The self-guided experiences “mix culture, food and wine, nature, folklore, the sea and relaxation…It will be like traveling back in time to the period when the emperor led the capital of the Tuscan Archipelago. Napoleon was a great innovator who made a decisive contribution to making Elba Island a modern place for that time, with measures that are even today part of its culture.”
According to the organization, "Napoleon Experience will immerse visitors in the atmosphere of the time: they will experience the excitement of the great parties at which Pauline, the sister of the emperor, was admired, dine at their table, and taste the Aleatico wine that Napoleon loved so much, walk along the roads that always look towards his native Corsica, discover how people lived surrounded by refined craftsmanship and precious minerals extracted from the island's belly, and much more.”
The initiative will launch in 2023 and will include various experiences from which visitors will be free to choose, creating their own unique Napoleonic holiday. "Napoleon Experience" is the result of a partnership between the public and private sectors on the island to promote tourism around the island.
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