‘Slow travel’ and the need for emotional content
Slow travel is not just a new way to travel, it’s a mindset. It’s when the overall quality of your travel experience is more important than the quantity of experiences. Huw Waters, head of marketing at Paragon DCX, says why travel brands need to serve content that matches consumer needs.
With the rise of slow travel, travel and leisure brands need to focus on producing content that doesn’t explain what people see, but makes them think that the presented location is a beautiful place to visit. It should invoke a sense of emotional longing and produce an arousal response that inspires the imagination, encouraging the idea of a life-changing experience.
The problem with travel content today
Travel brand content today is full of beautiful and informative pictures of destinations – white-sand beaches that stretch on for miles, vistas of the sun shining off the azure blue waters of a secluded coastal cove, vast cityscapes of a skyline that everyone immediately recognizes, local cuisines pictured invitingly on shiny white plates, and local people going about their daily job at the harbor, in the market or in a café.
These images, while lovely to look at and illustrative of the destination, don’t invoke a strong enough emotional response. They’re not relatable enough and they don’t reflect a real traveler’s experience.
Travel copy is the same. It’s informative and descriptive about the location – what you can visit and presenting the beauty of the place – but it lacks warmth and truth.
Travelers are continually seeking out travel blogs and travel articles from people who have actually been there; emotion-invoking prose that delves into their experiences; their interactions with local culture and local people; the taste of the local cuisine; and painting a picture of memories that last a lifetime.
Most travel brand content today isn’t fit for purpose, and it needs to change.
The rise of slow travel
Since the dawn of transportation, people have always sought to spend time in one location and throw themselves into an experience.
But this style of travel has risen exponentially lately – particularly with people wanting to return from trips with more than just their photos.
Travelers today want to discover moments that imprint on their soul, such as...
Getting up bright and early to grab a spicy morning snack from a street vendor hawking his wares on the steep slope up, passing people on horseback as the sun rises above the volcanic moonscape of Mount Agung in Bali.
