This article will be the summer of experiential travel, not out of fashion but out of necessity. Small guide to understanding what it is and how to distinguish it from tourism tout court
Who of you has ever done experiential tourism raise your hand? Everyone, at least once, I bet. Travelling is, in itself, an experience. Unless you are under the effect of powerful calming (since Conte used “powerful,” this is the only adjective that comes to mind to describe anything), yes you will have experienced moments that have marked your journey indelibly. Those are experiences, of course, but then why do we talk so much about experiential tourism? Maybe what we have lived are half experiences?
Experiential travel, a definition
The always holy Treccani defines experience as a “Form of direct knowledge, personally acquired through the observation, use and practice of a specific sphere of reality.”
there are 4 words interest us here: knowledge, observation, use, and practice. The first two can be traced back to what we would commonly call experience when we travel. Instead, the latter two define the thin line of experiential tourism: use and practice. Appropriating a context, not only observing it but also using it, really brings us into the experience. And here we are today.
The drastic modification of our habits
The advent of Covid-19, by now we know it, has redefined a great part of our habits, so much so that we have to ask ourselves if the way we have always done things, after all, is the right one. This applies to every area of our life, public and private. It has changed the way we work, and many of us are fine. It has redefined our relationship with the environment, so now we think twice before killing an insect. It has changed our consumption so that what you buy in quarantine will never forget it. It has changed the way we think about travel: not more than quantity, but quality.
Experiential travel, how do we do it?
And here experiential travel returns: we want to do less, but better, and better implies branding ourselves in the mind what we are going to do. The only way to achieve this is to live the journey, rather than just observing it.
We want to weave the baskets with the older man by the sea, prepare the local dish together with the local expert, break the ice with the strangers, know all about the sea where we are getting wet, accept the risk of running a little danger just to overcome our comfort zone. We want to do it, possibly, away from others, in small groups at most.
Partly because you never know these days, partly because – let’s face it – if the quarantine taught us something, it was to appreciate the little things, even the loneliness, and to be like idiots during some other people he doesn’t go there anymore.
So where do we go?
Look, the question is easy: as we have said before, it will be an Italian summer. The advertising that the Italian regions usually reserved for large stands at international fairs to attract foreigners is all aimed at us this year. I don’t know how much Sicily spends to redo the logo (the same as Puglia, among other things). Umbria reminds us that it is the green heart of Italy. Abruzzo goes beyond telling us that “living in moments is natural.”
Travel can for sure enrich our life, but at the same time it’s a true chance to encourage personal and professional growth while on the road.
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