Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus (A GeoEx eBook)

Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus

The Future of Travel: Six Emerging Trends

and promote the very treasures we are enjoying. It’s a win- win travel experience, an example of the kind of travel we’ll be seeing more and more in the future, I think. Happily, I will have the great privilege and pleasure of leading this trip, which takes place next fall, and I’m extremely excited about it. 2. Slow Travel A second trend is slow travel. The restrictions of this year have taught us just how much travel means to us, how precious it is. As a result of this, I believe that when we travel again, we will want to slow down to savor every moment and every encounter in full. We are going to travel more mindfully and measuredly, to delve more deeply into a place. For me, one of the silver linings of the pandemic has been to make me reappreciate the wonders that are close to home, on a slow, attentive walk through my neighborhood or on a day- long immersion in a nearby destination such as Muir Woods. When we start to roam widely again, I think we will bring that same awareness and goal to the larger world. GeoEx just arranged a trip that’s a good example of one aspect of this: We sent a traveler to an extraordinary resort in the Maldive Islands. Rather than move from island to island, her plan was to stay on one island for all of her eight-day trip, and to explore all the options that island had to offer, from beachcombing to sightseeing by boat to lazing under softly swaying palms. Sounds heavenly, doesn’t it? As she enthusiastically told me after her return, it truly was heavenly. “One big highlight was that I felt totally relaxed,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous about anything. After the stress of living in a big city in the US, it was so wonderful to wake up in the morning and just feel normal.” These words resonated with me, and I suspect that many tired and traumatized travelers will be yearning for similarly slow-paced getaways.

has been sustainable travel, or sustainable tourism. The World Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as “development [which] meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future.” It is founded on three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. Sustainable travel grew out of responsible travel, which grew out of ecotravel. Now this evolution is continuing, and a new buzzphrase is replacing sustainable travel: regenerative travel. As Jonathon Day, an associate professor in Purdue University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, said in a recent New York Times article, “Sustainable tourism is sort of a low bar. At the end of the day, it’s just not making a mess of the place. Regenerative tourism says, let’s make it better for future generations.” Regenerative travel not only respects and preserves a place and its people, it restores and improves them; regenerative travelers leave a place better than it was when they arrived and pave a path for long-term enrichment. GeoEx has recently launched a trip that is a good example of regenerative travel. It’s called Unexplored Japan, and it follows the picturesque coastline of the Sea of Japan in the western part of the main island, Honshu. This is an area that is little visited by Japanese travelers, much less Western travelers, and it is a region rich with traditional crafts and practices. Our tour will spotlight many of these, including Hagi-yaki pottery, indigo dyeing, and traditional salt-, sake-, and vinegar- makers. Among other highlights, we’ll stay in a gorgeously renovated samurai residence in one historic village and in a traditional funaya boathouse residence in a fishing village. We’ll also savor feasts prepared by local chefs who are creating innovative cuisine using seasonal and regional fare. This trip will not only be an immersive introduction to all these local treasures, it will also serve to preserve, celebrate,

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