Mainstream doesn’t cut it
anymore. How much it costs doesn’t matter. They don’t care if everyone is doing
it. All they ask is, ‘Is it unique and isolated?’
Mature travelers are
not only seeking experiences, but they have already started to discriminate
between experiences in favour of the ones that are off the beaten track,
difficult to find, never-heard-of places and things to do. In short, something
that doesn’t come in the top 10 Google search. This in turn is prompting operators
to look hard for products and activities that not many in their market are
offering, or even know of.
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| Taking a dive in El Nido, The Philippines |
An unfortunate turn
this new wave is taking is that social media influencers are being trolled for
showcasing ‘secret haunts’ online for fear that these dearly-loved spots of
locals will see a stampede of such travelers looking for Instagram-worthy
places. Fortunately, such incidents are rare and lie on one end of the
spectrum. But they indicate the growing demand for places that are not crawling
with tourists – a trend that is slowly being defined as luxury.
The truth is that by
and large, travelers have become explorers and discoverers. They don’t want to
merely travel. Whether it is just being part of a sustainable environment or
wanting to race on an F1 track onboard a cruise liner in the middle of the
ocean, it is the experience that matters – not so much the cost or the
destination and definitely not its popularity.
The India market is
slowly moving towards this trend but there is still a large percentage of
Indians who continue to enjoy their annual holiday in Thailand or Dubai. These
numbers are surprisingly high. But in a way it balances the scale and allows
the others to pursue their dream holidays, except that
this niche of travelers doesn’t want to ‘lose themselves’ or ‘escape life’.
They want to experience everything and come alive to every new moment they
witness.
