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By Sanjar Imam
‘Send me someplace nobody goes and give me an experience that is non-goggleable’, was one of my latest challenge as a travel advisor. The request came from a HNI client who I have serviced for the past 15 years, designing his personal trips around the world as I saw his business and him grow over the years into a global multi-million dollar enterprise. A first generation dollar millionaire.
I am quite used to my clients, most of who are repeats or referrals, calling me with a destination they desire to visit, their travel dates and saying, ‘fix it’. They know that I know their past travel history, their travel preferences and (pertinently) the curve in life they are going through, both economic as well as social. I fix it. It is quite like ChatGPT. But more on that later.
I have witnessed their transformation; upgrading from economy to business to first and then to private jet travel; climbing up to top-tier room categories; seeking the latest and finest when it comes to food and beverages. That is where they are presently and unless something else revolutionary comes up, that is where they will be, since for most, it is a one way stairway.
The significant shift over the past few years has been in them wanting more authentic and immersive experiences at the destinations. In doing so, if they need to sacrifice luxury, they have now become willing. It has now become about not just becoming a genuine explorer or adventurer to explore but about authenticity and doing it on own.
For a moment, let’s go back in time now and the history of mankind as far as travellers are concerned. A Greek Explore called Pytheas ventured to the Arctic Circle as early as the 4th Century BC and recorded his observations of landscape, sea ice, polar bears and Northern Lights. Marco Polo, a venetian merchant and trader, in the thirteenth century, adventured along the silk route to China and spent twenty years there. He returned and created maps (Europeans did not know routes to Asia before that!) and went on about life, which also involved leading a Venetian Galley to a battle with rival city of Genoa. He was captured and jailed. In prison a travelogue was penned. Not by him but a romance-writer to who Polo narrated.
Revenge Travel was anticipated once Covid concerns curbed, and the past few months have certainly seen people wanting to travel with a vengeance. However, the industry was ill-prepared to optimise the demand efficiently as capacities had been curtailed during the pandemic and ramping them up is a long-drawn process. Continuing on with his series of article on ‘Evolution of Travel’ Sanjar Imam in this article elaborates on how the travel industry is assessing and catering to some new norms and demands.
A couple of centuries down, ‘The Age of Exploration’, which began in the 15th century, saw the emergence of a new breed of travellers; the adventurer and explorer. These daring men and women set out on long and dangerous voyages in search of new lands, resources, and trade routes. Famous explorers of this period include Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan, who made some of the most significant discoveries in human history.
Travel as a trend caught on and we then hear about the ‘Grand Tours’ where Europeans took to travelling by design, to self-educate by experiencing distant lands, its culture, traditions and people, personally.
Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan scholar and world explorer. His quest for knowledge lead him to various parts of the world. Two of his most famous quote sum it all up about travelling first, ‘I have indeed – praise be to God – attained my desire in this world, which was to travel through the earth, and I have attained in this respect what no other person has attained to my knowledge’. Another of his famous ones that is more relatable today; ‘Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller’. Social media today, as we know, is all about storytelling in text and imagery.
Let’s snap back to the present. It is quite apparent that the quest for adventure, knowledge and exploring it all yourself have been prevalent for a long time. Experiencing it yourself or ‘experiential travel’, if you please. The Baby Boomers had the financial means to travel and the industrial revolution was making it all possible for them to get them to travel. The hospitality industry sprung up and hasn’t stopped spoiling them to date.
Then came the future generations and along with technology.
Zoomers and the Millennials, when travelling, already care less about where they stay and concern and consume themselves more with experiencing the local and the authentic. Experience trumps over material and they can spend (big) on the former. For them it’s luxury of a different nature. That of being the explorer and taking that adventure in pursuit of gaining knowledge to live a richer life, qualitatively.
Today, getting a room in a hotel can be achieved within a matter of minutes using laptops or smartphones with the help of applications that directly connect us with the brands or travel agents that help in the process. But was it always a case like this? Sanjar Imam, through his piece, elaborates on how hotels came into existence, and highlights the wide distance that the industry has covered to stand where it is today. Read on to know more.
Today, we are at a cusp. The ‘information’ is all out there. I feel we are leaving the ‘information age’ and transitioning to the ‘intelligence age’. The ‘artificial’ in Artificial Intelligence (AI), may not be as artificial as we think. Think that ChatGPT, Bling and Bard were not known to us until a few months ago and today there are an acknowledged disruptor; here to stay! Plugins to these apps were not known to us until last month! Everything is getting hooked up and connected to the (not-so-artificial) intelligence. We are breathing life into the beast.
Transient we are with technology and I cannot hazard a guess where we will end up. For now I am still groping with ‘send me some place nobody goes and give me an experience that is non-googleable’… for one thing is for sure, the explorer and adventurer in us, will never die. Experiential travel is the way forward.
The author is the Founder & Director of Panache World, a travel company specialising in customised travel to over 80 countries around the world.
This is the last part of series of articles describing how there has been a shift in the way people travel today wherein we are leaving the ‘information age’ and transitioning to the ‘intelligence age’.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETTravelWorld.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETTravelWorld.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.
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