The Future Travel Tribes

The travelers of today and tomorrow are looking for hyper-personalized, socialized and localized experiences. No longer do tourists look for cheeky material souvenirs to bring home from their travels, rather they long to walk away with stories, lessons and personal awakenings from their life experiences.

Social Safarians:
There is an evolving expectation for every experience to be social and sharable. This is true especially within the Millennial travelers, who are super-social, budget-conscious and love sharing resources. Mobile internet not only affects how travel is distributed, but also how we consume and experience the destination itself. From organic groupings (Sidetour), purposeful pairings (Feastly), access for all (Loungebuddy), to lodging with locals (Airbnb), travelers unite to form experiential bonds through communal travel.

© Daku Resort Savusavu Fiji – Flickr

Wellness Wayfarers:
We long for an intermission from monotonous daily life in order to mindfully refocus on our internal and external well-being. In order to heal, we disconnect and retreat from daily interferences and reconnect with nature, indigenous culture and spiritual engagement. Yoga retreats, medical tourism, shaman-led detoxingand brain bootcamps fulfill health goals while on holiday. The boom of wellness tourism is now a $494 billion worldwide industry sending travelers home with a lasting souvenir of refreshed wellness.

© Polynesian Xplorer – Flickr

Indigenous Immersers:
Cultural tourism has shifted from traditional heritage-built sightseeing to curiosities around intangible heritage, like local pop-culture, dive eateries and personal storytelling. We fully immerse ourselves into the daily lives of a culture unknown, gathering their stories to adopt as our own. The Global Yodel and Mydestination sites encourage travel through a local lens- through sharing and collecting inspiration from the community, it turns outsiders into insiders.

How can you tap into the evolving travellers values?

Cover image from Flickr, Creative Commons License, Moyan Brenn