Travel agents have taken a backseat to convenient sites like Expedia and Hotwire, as more and more people look to Google when making travel plans.
But believe it or not, the Global Travel Agencies Market is actually expected to grow significantly from 2015-2019, with a CAGR of 9.60 percent.
Increase in Creative Tourism
One key reason for this unexpected growth in the popularity of travel agencies is an upsurge in creative tourism. This kind of tourism targets travellers with interest in specific themes—everything from architecture to photography to food.
Like-minded individuals are grouped together with the focus being on exploring a particular element of culture. This theme-based tourism is prompting agencies to produce innovative package deals to cater to the demand—so much so that the tour packages segments is dominating the travel agencies market, with a 51.63 percent market share in 2014.
And while adventure and culinary tours are really nothing new, there’s a whole new breed of creative tourism that’s popping up, which is keeping agents on their toes and searching for bigger and better packages to offer keen travellers.
Five New Kinds of Alternative Tours:
Dark Tourism
Concentration camps in Poland, the Killing Fields in Cambodia, Ground Zero in New York and the beaches of Normandy are just a few of the more modern sites that act as the focus of dark tourism, which allows visitors to explore some of the darkest periods of human history.
While the concept might seem macabre, the emphasis of these tours is on history. Interpreters running dark tours seek to contextualize and illuminate genocides and massacres for the purpose of education.
Slum Tourism
Controversial slum tourism, otherwise known as “poverty tourism, reality tourism, poorism, misery tourism, exotic tourism or poverty porn,” is on the rise.
While it’s not a new concept (in the 19th century, it was popular for wealthy Londoners to visit the city’s low income areas for fun), it has expanded in recent years. Now, curious tourists can visit Brazil’s favelas, see the Mumbai slums made famous in Slumdog Millionaire, and witness the visible divide between rich and poor in South Africa’s townships.
While the concept might seem voyeuristic and negative, there are pundits arguing for both the pros and cons of slum tourism. Slum Tourism.net points out the positives, saying that slums are “idealised and sought out as places displaying a more authentic humanity, flourishing culture and deviant, but inventive entrepreneurship”.
Geotourism
According to national Geographic, “geotourism is defined as tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.”
This type of tourism borrows from both sustainable and ecotourism practices, which aim to preserve destinations and actively promote conservation of both place and culture.
Wellness Tourism
Wellness tourism is exactly what it sounds like- tourism based around physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and well-being. There are a huge variety of activities that can be classified under wellness tourism, but in general it is any and all travel aimed at augmenting personal well-being.
Fan Tourism
Whether you want to visit Middle Earth, Westeros, Hogwarts or any number of other fictitious lands, there’s probably a tour for you. A lot of these tours focus around film and television adaptations of favourite fantasy worlds, allowing tourists to visit the sets of Harry Potter (London) and key locations from Game of Thrones (including Northern Ireland and Iceland locations) or Lord of the Rings (New Zealand).
So next time you’re planning a vacation, maybe check out your nearest travel agent instead of immediately hitting up Google. They might have an interesting suggestion or two for your next getaway.
