When fanciful luxury starts to look less like expensive things and more like worthwhile experiences (and peaceful serenity) how do destinations and attractions adapt? Every destination can offer places and experiences that fill one with awe and wonder. So, why not use that to promote a unique singular experience to a very specific kind of traveler?
When we can see a trend among travel industry pillars like hotels and outfitters catering to a new audience type—that of affluent, location-independent professionals inflicted with a nomadic wanderlust—we see how “luxury” offerings can be redefined and expressed in a context appealing to that traveler type.
A recent article in Skift describes them in detail, labeling them “overstimulated millennials” and observed the trends of how they seek and experience a different kind of luxury.
The questions we at Bandwango are interested in for destination marketers is this: how can destinations themselves offer those same travelers the ability experience what they crave, and to unplug and disconnect? Hotels and others are embracing and adapting, but how many destinations will do the same? And in what ways? To that last question, we have some ideas.
Reading the Skift analysis, it would seem the play here is up for grabs from the more rural, natural getaway destinations, but really every destination can find the elements in it that make it serene, unplugged, peaceful, and elevated.
Finding those elements and the associated products, destinations, businesses and others that facilitate experiencing them is where the work of curation begins. Typically that means something outside, something unplugged, and the promise of some kind of transcendent experience. Transcendence being the key word, but experience being the operative one.
“We definitely consider ourselves to be luxury in a transformative sense. Being just two hours away from New York city, we’ll never compete with the level of traditional luxury provided in the city, nor do our guests want us to,” said Tom Roberts, one of three founders of the Livingston Manor Fly Fishing Club, as quoted by the Skift article.
Roberts goes on to describe their brand of luxury as simply an “immersive experience in nature” and one that facilitates a “disconnecting from the hetive nature of modern life.” The Skift Take by Samantha Shankman in the same article cuts to the chase by bluntly stating that “the future of luxury leisure will be based in actual nature.”
Other key industries and offerings the article mentions that can be key for the tuned-in destination marketer to look to include wellness, stress relief and fitness. But here again it’s all about industries that facilitate specific experiences and chiefly it’s those experiences that transform.
Additionally, it would seem that where there is a social element as well that becomes an added draw. Activities like yoga and group guided meditations come to mind as a social expression of these activities that can also be done privately. But also in nature, social activities like agritourism tours and wilderness excursions, golf trails—especially ones off the beaten path—or pristine nature sports like fly fishing as Robert’s company featured in Skift.
With Bandwango, not only is it easy to act quickly on an idea and then create experimental passes to match that idea, it’s what the platform is designed to do. What can feel like a traditionally risky expenditure of resources, ends up being more flexible and iterative with Bandwango’s DXE.
Adding another pass onto your destination’s experience marketplace only adds to the broader landscape of what your destination offers to the diversity of travelers who come seeking a diversity of things to do. So taking that risk really only expands a destination’s offerings and a rich data lab to determine which travelers, from where are drawn to what.
Offering more to visitors also increases a destination’s ability to track purchase and redemption data in a way that can confirm a trend’s veracity in your location, or, conversely, signal a need to redirect to something else. Taking the risk of trying something new and tracking the data to measure ROI, all while giving travelers more of exactly the kinds of experiences they crave is really what it’s all about.
So when it comes to those travelers looking to unplug and be guided to a connection with the earth or with their inner selves, destinations can and ought to facilitate that with their relevant attractions, experiences and offerings.
While counterintuitive, there is an essential role that technology plays in offering visitors the luxury of being able to disconnect from the world and retreat into nature. With destinations featuring experiences powered by Bandwango, it’s our technology that delivers access to these experiences instantly to visitors’ mobile devices and empowers them to unplug from that same device more quickly and more effectively.
Using one’s phone to unplug can seem like a contradiction, but once again from the Skift article, the AccorHotels vice-president of well-being, luxury brands, Andrew Gibson, said “I expect to see technology to play a large part in relaxation.”
When it comes to young travelers seeking transformative, natural experiences untethered to the business of the world, there’s no reason why Bandwango-powered destinations can’t get ahead of the curve, if not lead the charge.
Interested in learning more about Bandwango’s Destination Experience Engine and the opportunities it can create for unique and tailored marketing for your destination? We’d love to hear from you.