Tourism in the Gulf
By Martin Owen
Why do you go on vacation? Certainly, it is to rest and recharge your batteries. According to a multi-lingual friend of mine a phrase like “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is used in many different cultures, so getting away from your usual routine is certainly a good reason to go on vacation. Here on the Northern Gulf Coast it’s usually assumed that our visitors come for the beach. After all our beaches are beautiful! Ask the tourists and that’s what they’ll probably tell you, but if you delve a little more deeply, the answers become more enlightening.
How many of our guests actually spend all their time on the beach? Relatively few, if truth were told. They come for the food, the shopping, and yes, the experiences. They come for the beach lifestyle certainly, but there’s much more to that than lying on the sand.
Tourists to the Gulf Coast are pretty much three main types: families, millennials (born between 1978 and 2000) and boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). The last two types are the largest traveling groups and they tend to arrive not only during the school vacations, but throughout the year. Both groups are looking for experiences. They want to do things that they can’t do in their day-to-day life, and they want to share that experience on their social media with friends.
Coming to our piece of paradise means eating in spectacular restaurants and trying all the amazing seafood; they want to shop in the outdoor malls and they want to join in eco-tourism experience in the bayous. Artificial reefs are being created along the coast so that our tourists can go on scuba diving trips in addition to the incredible variety of fishing charters both in-shore and deep-sea.
It’s not just resort areas that are seeing this expansion of ‘experience tourism’. Cruise companies are reporting that in the past, cruise passengers were happy to stay on board ship, except for the traditional bus ride around local tourist traps when the ship docked. Those passengers now want to pre-book excursions that push the boundaries. These can be shark cage diving experiences in Hawaii or visiting a local family to cook local dishes with them. It’s rapidly changing the way cruises are being sold and organized.
As tourism expands we’re seeing the rise of multi-generational vacations. Not just Mom and Dad taking their kids to the beach, but millennials traveling with their grandparents. That can be a challenge as you can imagine, but both groups want the same thing. They want to experience the unusual and then share that with their friends back home.
At one time a hotel room was a highlight of the trip, or a condo was exciting. Now—unless that room is a boutique hotel or the condo is simply stunning and exceptional—the place to stay is just a commodity. Like the flight is just a way to get where you’re going, unless the accommodations are offering something special—an experience—it’s not part of the driving reason to travel.
The result is that we’re seeing a growth in spectacular hotels, boutique hotels, and small, friendly bed and breakfast establishments that become a destination in their own right. Restaurants are creating new menus and reinventing themselves every couple of years. A restaurant that hasn’t changed its menu or decor in years isn’t going to survive. Have you seen the seafood restaurants locally where your fish comes with a barcode you can scan with your phone to see which captain caught your fish, where, when, and the name of his boat?
The current tourist wants to search the Internet for the latest and greatest things to do. Hence, the rise of the On-Line Travel Agents (known as OTAs) that sell only the experiences. They’re on your smart phone and tablet so that when you arrive to a destination, you can check out what the weather is doing that day, and then instantly book your experience, pay on line and turn up.
Our vacations are changing faster and, in more ways, than you can imagine. The emphasis is on experiences, not bringing back cheap and tacky souvenirs that get packed in a drawer. The days of showing your vacation snaps to friends on your return are over. You want to post on Facebook to say “This is me parasailing—live!”