Experiential Travel: Going from being a Tourist to becoming a Traveler

This post was written by Antimo Cimino of Voomago. If you're interested in writing for the RoamRight blog, email us.

Trends in the travel field have changed a lot in the last 5 years. First of all, travel is no longer a baby boomer experience - the variety of options available around the globe and the access to the web has made scheduling travel much easier.

One concern however still remains when traveling to a different country with a different culture and language. And that’s trust. How do you ease a client's fear and anxiety and allow them to fully enjoy an exciting and safe experience? A large group of people feel safe and are content with booking packages that will include tours on a bus, hotels, meals in fine restaurants, and visits to museum. However that kind of travel is really tourism. Being a tourist, your client’s experience is limited to artifacts, must see places, and crowds of other tourists everywhere you go. Your clients  may see all the sights that they always wanted to see but they only scratched the surface of that country's culture.

Tourists are excited about visiting a foreign country and because they do not have a lot of experience in planning the trip, they often buy all inclusive packages. Another reason why they may do so is that they find the information on the web to daunting and overwhelming.

Experiential travel provides a unique opportunity to experience the culture and the people of the country up close. Unlike traveling like a tourist, a traveler immerses him or herself with the locals and their lifestyle and still has plenty of time and opportunity to check out more touristy scenes. So how do you encourage your clients to change from traveling like a tourist to becoming more of a traveler?

Getting on the experiential travel wagon is the first step.

These days experiential travel has become a buzz word, so it is really difficult to identify the right company on the web that is indeed walking the talk and delivering authentic, cultural, travel experiences. VoomaGo is a company that focuses in particular on Italy and delivers some of the most authentic experiences you can find. Here is why: It is a very small company owned by a native Italian that brings his clients directly to his region, Puglia, and hangs out with family and friends. Whether they harvest grapes, make wine, bake bread in a countryside wood burning oven, make pasta, go fishing and more, your clients can be immersed in the most authentic atmosphere while being treated like friends and family.

Traveling with VoomaGo is like experiencing the Italian life through a tapestry of events, sensations, and emotions that will bring you unparalleled happiness, transformations and build ever lasting memories and friendships.

Experiential travel of this kind allows your clients to contribute to local economies in ways that big companies don't. The money spent on meals are for the most part benefitting small simple families whose livelihood depends on the milk and cheese the produce.

Your client’s presence is mutually beneficial. Through conversations about home, food and life, our hosts are able to travel vicariously through your clients, adding richness to each other's lives.

When a travelers chooses experiential travel, destination is NOT your main reason to travel - the interaction with locals, the insights into their lifestyle, and the emotional connections you develop become your main reasons. Story telling easily becomes the social currency of the traveler because of the authentic and memorable experiences that have exceeded his or her expectations.

In the end, tourists are happy with barely scraping the surface of the culture they visit, travelers instead want to go deeper.