Experiential Tourism: Another Way of Traveling

This is the trend of the last decade and every year it confirms itself as one of the most sought after and appreciated forms of tourism by travelers of all types and ages. This is experiential tourism.

Experiential tourism: what is it?

Experiential tourism is a tourism concept that focuses on personal experience, interaction with people, and sharing unique moments and memories. So, let’s dive into this universe, trying to understand together what conscious and experiential tourism is while immersing ourselves in the realities that, day after day, offer this type of travel all over the world. Discover our tips for a perfect, different, and deep journey.

Definition

The word itself tells us everything. Experience derives from the Latin word “experiri”, which means “to experience”: it is the practical knowledge of the world acquired through contact with a specific sector of reality. Conscious, responsible, or experiential tourism is a form of tourism that aims to provide people with an intimate, unique, different, unique, and valuable experience, where the destination takes second place, and the protagonist becomes the individual.

Experience above all

In experiential tourism, what matters is the experience, and all the positive feelings and unique, memorable memories that each travel blogger will take home at the end of the trip. The activities carried out within the framework of this new form of travel have a strong personal, social, and emotional impact, and can put the individual in contact with the history, culture, people, and traditions of the place.

In traditional forms of sightseeing, consisting of landmarks and attractions, once you get home, you’re left with just a stack of photos on your smartphone (which you’ll probably never look at again). With experiential tourism, this situation is reversed. You’ll probably have a lot fewer photos on your phone, but what’s going to be full in your heart and mind.

And it’s no coincidence that experiential tourism continues to grow. Day after day, the recorded figures of people who decide to follow this trend are numerous.

Experiential tourism in Asia: a success story

After so many fine words about conscious and experiential tourism, it’s time to be a little more concrete and try to understand, with the help of a few examples, what this new trend consists of. To do this, we decided to tell you about Conscious Journeys and their latest trip to Burma.

Conscious Journeys is an Asian tour operator that offers conscious tourism mother daughter trips to places such as India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Maldives. The mission of this association is to support local associations, NGOs, cooperatives, and marginalized tribes through their journeys, incorporating them as essential experiences in the itineraries while making the journeys more authentic.

12 days in the heart of Burma

Being a local organization, it knows the territory perfectly and is, therefore, able to offer the best experiences of conscious and experiential tourism. This summer, an itinerary in Burma took place, which saw a group of travelers crossing this wonderful country for 12 days, starting from Mandalay and arriving in Yangon. In between, there were plenty of fascinating sites and unique attractions, but mostly ‘ experiential ‘ activities.

Between towns, group members will have the chance to participate in unique activities and experiences, such as a traditional Burmese meditation session, watching the sunset from Mandalay Hill, meeting local villagers, a boat tour of Inle Lake, visits to textile and cigar factories, Burmese cooking classes, as well as numerous excursions, walks and even hikes.

Why?

Each activity has a double objective: to provide the traveler with a unique and unforgettable experience and to benefit not only the local communities but also the entire Burmese ecosystem, by protecting the environment and living according to the principles of responsible tourism and sustainability.

This is just one example of experiential tourism. The forms of experiential tourism are varied, each with its particularities. There are so many possibilities, and every place, country and place can offer new and ever more unique activities and experiences. Now that you have finally understood what this new concept is all about, what are you waiting for?