Could your visitor attraction benefit from applying the principles of experiential tourism?
Once you understand the principles of experiential tourism, you can create visitor experiences that create longer-lasting, more meaningful memories, and help increase your visitor attraction’s bottom line.
Experiential tourism has been on the rise for some time now, as visitors demand more authentic and engaging travel experiences – and interest shows no sign of waning as we move past the pandemic.
VisitEngland research into experiential activities, in June 2019, cites experiential travel as an area of opportunity: “Experiential travel is increasingly important. Global trends reflect the desire among travellers to have authentic, immersive experiences, that combine fun with the opportunity to learn.”
Industry-acknowledged expert of experiential tourism Chris Brant is founder of Unmissable England, an OTA that has created a new collection of authentic and original visitor experiences run by small businesses and local people. He also played an active role in developing the concept of experience-based tourism in England, as project manager for the VisitEngland Discover England programme working with ten National Parks to create over 70 new experiences. He says: “As a tourism business advisor and experience maker myself, I’ve seen a change before Covid-19 and as we come out of lockdown in the types of activities both domestic and inbound visitors are now looking for. Visitors want to get beneath the surface of a place, connect with local people, hear their stories and have a hands-on adventure.”
What exactly is experiential tourism?
Sometimes known as immersion travel, experiential tourism is all about holistic experiences that deeply connect guests with a place and its people. This is done by encouraging visitors to actively and meaningfully participate in the experience. Some definitions include a transformative or learning aspect for the visitor too.
According to Chris, an effective experience is one that combines resources (places), products (amenities such as accommodation, restaurants and activities), services (transport, tour guides, bike hire) and local stories and people (these make the experience authentic) into one bookable entity that’s united by a story.
The story is vital. It’s a large part of what differentiates the experience from (and raises it above) a traditional bundle or package. Successful experiences have a story than runs through every part of them. Every activity, taste and interaction helps tell the story.
But how is experiential tourism relevant for visitor attractions?
Yes, experiential travel is usually associated with a particular destination, such as a town, country or coastline, but the principle can be applied to visitor attractions too.
It’s not about selling individual tourism products or services, such as entry tickets, lunch hampers or animal handling sessions for example, but providing a complete travel experience that deeply and actively engages visitors, under one price point and story/theme, so that they leave feeling more connected to the place.
VisitEngland’s research found high interest from both international and domestic markets in experiential activities such as:
- Experience life ‘behind the scenes’
- Distillery or brewery experience
- Guided nature experience
- Vineyard tour and tasting
Mindfulness or meditation, cookery and photography classes were identified as having high growth potential.
These are all activities that could be developed by visitor attractions, perhaps in collaboration with other tourism providers.
A memorable travel experience is no longer about sipping beer in the brewery that produced it. It’s about getting a behind-the-scenes tour of the brewery (preferably with a bottle of the brew in hand) and beer-tasting lessons from the chief brewer. And if the visitor can follow that with a night glamping among the very hops that went into the brew, even better.
Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve in Kent is a good example. While it doesn’t exactly connect visitors with the Kent countryside at its most traditional, Port Lympne does a great job of tying together its safari park (resource) with its people (keepers), products (Port Lympne hotel) and services (safari truck or personal golf buggies), all in a price point that can be booked online. Guests are deeply engaged with the work the Aspinall Foundation does as they learn more about conservation, meet the passionate people who work there and sleep in lodges next to lions, tigers and leopards. They also know that all profits from the parks go to animal charity conservation work.
Remember, the greater the differentiation of the experience, the more you can charge for it. And while your VA benefits from a better profit margin, your visitor gains more meaningful, longer-lasting memories. Everyone’s happy.
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