From Rural Glampings to Ultra Luxury Travel
Navigating the complexities of the tourism industry and the disruption of the traditional travel agency concept.
Last week I was looking at the website of LIFFE (Ljubljana’s Film Festival) and deciding which movie I wanted to see.
The movie I chose was Evil Does Not Exist. Why?
The description: “Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a glamping site near Takumi's house offering city residents a comfortable "escape" to nature.”
Besides the connection to travel and rural development, the director of the movie, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, also directed Drive My Car, which I absolutely loved. My choice was made.
As I watched the movie I found so many connections to what I’m working on.
The first half was predictable (not a spoiler) and quite straight forward. I’ve seen this situation in person many times - locals not satisfied by a foreign professional (non-tourism) company barging in their community and trying to build a tourism resort.
The initial story is about the promise that tourism will make life in the village better for the residents while not actually listening to their wishes.
But the second half of the movie I’m still thinking about and trying to understand. It left us, the viewers in shock and made us question things.
So far I think it’s a good representation of how complex tourism actually is. Especially in delicate places like small villages/rural areas.
Tourism is a good business opportunity. But even when you think you’ve figured out the technicalities, legal issues, investments, etc., there’s still something unpredictable that can happen when you deal with the local community.
However, there’s more to the movie than just simple tourism business. The director in a genius way highlights some post-pandemic social issues of living in big cities and thus the romanticization of rural life.
As rural areas become more accessible and appealing to live in or to visit (mostly because of the possibility of remote work), such situations, though not so extreme, might become more and more common.
Although that’s probably only part of what this movie represents. It’s the type of movie you need to watch a couple of times to get to the core message. If somebody saw it, please let me know what you thought about it.
Apart from this great movie, other content popped into my radar in the past couple of weeks related to work & leisure.
Why is Japan targeting ultra rich travelers?
Staying in Japan but going in the opposite direction of tourism. From rural to ultra luxury.
An article stated that “ultra-rich travelers could be the key to revitalizing regional areas in Japan.”
They write about the benefits that these types of travelers could bring to Japan, economically and socially. The strategy is to disperse tourism away from already well-visited and financially strong destinations like Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
In the end they also mention some concerns like cultural disruption, and the over-commercialization, which are in my opinion highly likely due to the fact that tourism has a history of doing this. There are however strategies and ways to avoid this and still maintain high-value services.
As my mentor says, we cannot expect to deliver 5* travel experiences if the people running them do not have a 5* mindset.
It’s not that people in rural areas do not have the capacity for 5* experiences. It’s just that the category for a rural 5* experience is different then the one with private jets and ultra-luxury resorts. It’s a different league to play in.
In the movie, the people from the city were amazed by the main protagonist when he was chopping wood and collecting water from the stream. They very much wanted to try it and for them we could argue this was a 5* experience as defined in the article:
Luxury travelers want to see things they can't usually see or experience.
And these are the 5* experiences we can expect from rural areas and that luxury travelers would appreciate. By forcing another 5* category locals can’t cater to, we can expect a big mismatch and thus dissatisfaction of visitors and in the end, cultural disruption.
Disruption of the tour guide concept
Another element of tourism which is on it’s way to disruption is the concept of a tour guide.
WeRoad is not a small player anymore and they managed to achieve a big growth $$$ by offering tours around the world with tour leaders who have probably never visited the destination they are traveling to with their guests.
This reminds me of Airbnb - 3 guys who didn’t have ANY experience in hospitality have disrupted the industry.
For more traditional and legacy tourism companies, it might seem outrageous that a tour leader is not “qualified” and experienced. Just like Airbnb - no hospitality expert took them seriously.
I think though that these type of group tours make sense for younger millenialls and Gen Z travelers - they care more about the vibe of the trip and the leader than his/her actual qualifications or if they know if a specific church was built in the 16th or 17th century.
The trip leader is more of a friend than a tourism expert.
If you read WeRoad’s reviews, they mostly mention the coordinator/trip leader, how friendly they were and how good the experience of the trip was.
“Our tour coordinator Aga was exceptional and I would confidently say that she went above and beyond to ensure everyone is having a great time.” - WeRoad Guest
Now, WeRoad is going beyond this with their WeRoad Marketplace - they will enable their coordinators to propose and design the trips they want to do.
I’m very curious how this is going to go forward! If you have any thoughts, as always, let me know in the comments or let’s chat on LinkedIn.
"Another element of tourism which is on it’s way to disruption is the concept of a tour guide."
Curious to see how this segment will evolve. Tour operators have experienced growth post-pandemics, with some new trends emerging within it. Many opportunities for differentiation/consolidation in the future.