Travel Gets Experiential

More than a decade ago, in 2001, Italy-born American businessman Dennis Anthony Tito became the first traveller to space to have funded his own journey. The multi-millionaire paid about $ 20 million for his 8-day leisurely ride in space. Eleven years later, when British singer Sarah Brightman announced that she had bought a seat to fly on a Russian spaceship, she described it as a chance to live out a childhood desire “beyond her wildest dreams”. Like Tito and Brightman, a growing segment of travellers today are willing to try out unorthodox ideas in order to fulfil the craziest of their desires. Based on a growing keenness to discover and explore the diverse facets of the world we live in, travel consumers are increasingly demanding unique tailor-made itineraries tuned to their specific interests, preferences and sophisticated palates.

Clearly, tourism is now more an amalgamation of an experience-driven adventure and new surroundings. Travellers no more want to be held by a leash. According to Kashmira Commissariat, Chief Operfating Officer, Kuoni India's Outbound Division, “Travel consumers today want their experiences to be completely different from what they have experienced elsewhere. They want to be a part of the culture and heritage of the destination they seek to discover.”

As a result of this trend, demand for offbeat adventure resorts and for personal and customised holidays is in vogue these days. These niche products, which were popular with more matured travellers from Europe and the US once, are of late finding growing acceptance among Indian travellers as well. Tour operators are also gearing up to fulfill this growing demand. Instead of lazy holidays people are increasingly being driven into having first hand experience of things and making their trip a lasting memory. Varun Chadha, COO, journeymart.com, recalls a personal experience that made his vacation in Alaska many years ago, still memorable. “During a stay in the Alaskan wilderness in my early teen days, I mildly expressed a desire to the tour operator for a glass of Champagne and it was delivered without any fuss. The act created a special ‘one and only moment’ for me which I savour to this day.”

So what is experiential travel? The website for AFAR, one of the international organizations targeting the tourism market, has an excellent definition of experiential travel: “Experiences that connect you with the essence of a place and its people… Experiential travellers want to venture beyond the beaten paths and dive deeper into authentic, local, culture, connecting with people from other cultures in ways that enrich their lives and create lasting memories.”

In India, the experiential tourism segment has evolved over the years, from a nascent one just a few years ago, to a segment that is pegged at over Rs 400 crore today and growing. As per an analysis by PHDCCI, experiential tours are one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian tourism industry with a 20 per cent growth rate recorded last year. No doubt, the segment is in the spotlight for the Ministry of Tourism. Experiential tours are rapidly gaining popularity in India and according to the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI), there are a number of tour operators who have made this niche segment their sole business and their numbers are proliferating by the day.

A Kuoni India Holiday Report indicates that although exploring unseen places is one of the top priorities of Indian travellers, eco-tourism is the emerging travel trend. Travellers seek to identify an exciting, eco-friendly way to see the world without compromising on comfort. As per the report, 34 per cent of Indian travellers regard eco-tourism as the future holiday trend. Among the popular eco-tourism destinations, there are Alaska, Australia, Africa and Kerala. The tour packages can range between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh and even above, for these kinds of exclusively designed tours.

Inside India, experiential tours span activities such as white water river rafting, trekking and mountaineering, wildlife safari and desert safari, skiing, hot air ballooning, paragliding, scuba diving etc. These activities are now being promoted aggressively not just by travel agents but are  also being focused upon as new options by tour operators. Even states like Rajasthan, Kerala, Goa, Himachal Pradesh are looking at experiential tourism to add on to the bouquet of offerings and attract more international and domestic tourists. The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation organises the pre-World Cup for paragliding at the Bir and Billing area of Kangra district. The Himalayan range in the state offers a number of trekking trails of various grades and peaks for mountaineering enthusiasts. HPTDC also promotes white water rafting, trekking, horse riding, and water sports at the Maharana Ranjit Sagar Dam and the Pong Dam.

As India’s population continues to urbanise rapidly, travel consumers will increasingly favour experiences over traditional goods and services. With the experiential travel segment notching a  CAGR growth of 15 to 20 per cent, it has become critically important for all travel companies, international tourism boards, airlines and hotels to understand this market and stake a position in this value system. Customising products with flexible holiday options and offering personalised services to woo Indian travellers is becoming the new standard as the travel industry looks to take a jaunty ride on the back of the experiential tourism market.

ashish.kumar@planmanmedia.com