428. From Attractions to Experiences, with Laurel Greatrix

On this episode of Destination on the Left, Laurel Greatrix and I explore why today’s travelers are seeking out the experience first and planning trips around it. She shares the top types of experiences that travelers are searching for and explains why they allow visitors to explore a destination more deeply.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• Why today’s travelers are increasingly planning trips around experiences rather than destinations, and what this shift means for destination marketers
• What types of travel experiences are trending right now, from outdoor adventures to immersive, small-group offerings like cooking and craft classes
• How Viator supports both large and small experience operators and helps them reach wider audiences through powerful distribution partnerships
• Why authenticity matters in travel experiences and how travelers are seeking unique, non-mass market interactions to go deeper into destinations
• What roles collaboration and strategic partnerships play in Viator’s business model, including the relationship with TripAdvisor and broad third-party distribution

The Experience-First Shift in Travel Planning

Historically, travel planning centered around destinations, accommodations, and flights. Travelers picked a location, locked in their hotel, and then considered what activities to do once on site. But according to Laurel Greatrix, Vice President of Marketing at Viator, the world’s largest travel experiences marketplace, that approach is rapidly evolving. Increasingly, travelers are first setting their sights on unique and memorable experiences and building their trips around them.

What sets the experiences sector apart isn’t just its offline-heavy operation or diversity, but the sheer pace of its growth. Since the pandemic, demand has soared for outdoor and active experiences, with destinations like Alaska, Utah, Colorado, and Banff seeing impressive spikes in bookings. Simultaneously, activities such as cooking classes and craft workshops are seeing consistent double- and even triple-digit growth rates. These trends show travelers craving meaningful engagement with destinations, a trend accelerated by the global prioritization of health, wellness, and authentic encounters.

Authenticity and Personalization

“Authentic” is a buzzword often used in travel, but as Laurel points out, it means something different to every traveler. Viator’s data shows that while classic attractions, think the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower, remain bucket-list essentials, growth is skewing toward bespoke, local, and hands-on experiences. Travelers increasingly seek opportunities to connect with local culture, meet passionate guides, and try their hand at activities like perfume making in Paris or chocolate crafting in Belgium.

For marketers and operators, this means a growing need to communicate what makes their experiences unique, accessible, and “authentic.” Reviews, detailed product descriptions, and visually rich content can help set expectations and attract customers seeking depth over breadth.

Collaboration in the Experiences Ecosystem

Viator’s success is rooted in collaboration, internally and through partnerships. Its acquisition by TripAdvisor shows how powerful collaborations can transform an entire market segment. By powering bookings across thousands of partner sites ranging from airlines to travel agencies and even Amazon, Viator helps even the smallest operators achieve global reach.

Collaboration also extends to working with destinations and other experience providers. By joining forces, they can disperse visitor traffic, reduce overcrowding at major sites, and promote lesser-known experiences that contribute to local economies and more sustainable tourism practices.

Resources:

• Website: https://www.viator.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurelgreatrix/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/viatortravel/
• X: https://x.com/ViatorTravel
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/viator
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ViatorTravel

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