During the past decade the tourism industry has experienced multiple changes and evolutions , especially due to the apparition of new consumer’s behavior.
Being a non basic needs industry, the tourism sector is always forced to adapt itself to both mass market desire, and prosumers expectations.
Thus it has witnessed an increasing demand in smaller, and less expensive trips, but also the development of niche market, like eco tourism or meaningful tourism.
The primary motivation for taking holidays was to relax, escape and discover new environment. But trends indicate that motivations are evolving as consumers’ motivation for traveling evolves. An always more part of the touristic population declares feeling concerned about the eco-responsibility of its trip, the carbon impact of its holidays, or the meaningfulness of their travels.
In response to those new trends in tourism, eco tourism and meaningful tourism have been approached by travel agencies and even tour operator, considering the small but significant part of the tourism market.
Meaningful tourism was originally associated with NGOs, and consumers had to perform extensive research to get information about the kind of mission being offered, the criteria to fulfill and the processes to be accepted as volunteers. Which was leading to as real opacity of this way of traveling and was often discouraging seasonal volunteers. Moreover, the offer was not adapted to the demand; because applications were too often addressed for 6 months to one year, which couldn’t fit with holidays schedules.
The demand of meaningful tourism existed but the lack of information and accessibility was preventing it from developing.
The first platforms to develop a compromise between holidays and voluntary service were not for profit organizations, and especially scouting associations. By organizing fundraising and meaning full trips associated to summer camps, they opened the way of meaningful holidays for people who couldn’t afford to spend more than 2 months doing voluntary services, like children or students.
Thos trips were organized around a 1 month basis of 2 weeks of voluntary work and 2 week of discovery, always in an eco and cultural responsible way.
Then religious associations decided to offer to their members an help for accessing voluntary service, associated with an accompaniment during the process of registration and the building of their file to apply in NGO’s voluntary services. Due to the success encountered they opened their services to non religious members in order to improve worldwide voluntary services.
Later on, facing the slowing down of usual travel demand for holidays , travel agencies have approached NGOs and not for profit organizations in their search for differentiated products.
They started to build trips around theme appealing to consumers looking for meaningful travels; such as tour focusing on the discovery and the help of local under-developed populations, or even the protection of local environment in endangered natural resources parks.
Travel agencies encountered their first difficulties during the pricing process; because it was difficult to put a price on a travel which was engaging customer to support extreme condition of life, poor comfort or relaxation and often engaging them to work, sometimes very hard, during their holidays.
They had to revise the entire process to achieve an offer which was affordable for both agencies and consumer, by adding protection fees, assurances or even extra food services, in order to justify the fact of “paying to work in extreme conditions”.
Skeptical at first, this niche market have been regularly growing since and is even attracting large tour operator, considering a way to include voluntary service in their panel of offer.
Nevertheless, thanks to the democratization of online booking, networking web sites and experiences sharing, an alternative way of traveling, and especially meaningfully travelling, has emerged, through backpacking and couch surfing trips. Travelers are no longer consumers but became organizer and actors of their own trips, without using usual intermediaries to book their travels.
Nowadays, meaningful travels can be organized through:
· - Online research, organized by theme ,country or duration
· - Travel agencies working in partnership with NGOs or governments
· - Destination websites
· - Not for profit organizations
· - Networking web sites
· - Specialized Tour Operators
To conclude, meaningful travel is not a short-lived trend, resulting of intensive marketing campaigns; but a real desire of the touristic population, which was under-appreciated and complicated due to intensive application criteria and lack of information, but responding to a long time existing demand. The acceleration of meaningful travels’ offer represents the acknowledgment of the desire more than a headlong toward profit. Nevertheless, it's the development of the Web 2.0 which has allowed meaningful travels to be accessible for everyone.
