The submit How fam trips help travel agents and media promote cultural tourism globally appeared first on TD (Travel Daily Media) Travel Daily Media.
Jonker Street in Melaka, Malaysia is a visible extravagaza that additionally doubles as a vacation spot for avid consumers and meals lovers
Whenever the phrases familiarisation trips (colloquially shortened to “fam trips”) are talked about, ideas mechanically appear to go to tour operators or travel agents who need to know sufficient a few location in an effort to pitch it to potential clients.
However, within the context of the rising world penchant for cultural and even pop-cultural tourism, familiarisation excursions aren’t only for agents, however additionally they help members achieve a greater understanding of the placement via its historical past, traditions, tradition, and delicacies.
In this function, we level out a number of the reason why fam trips could be an integral a part of tourism promotion, notably within the context of cultural and heritage tourism.
It is our hope that this text serves to information the considering of tourism boards and different organisations searching for to promote their residence nations or particular places to the world at giant.
The stay Tangkuban Perahu crater in Bandung, Indonesia serves as a residing ecology lesson that fascinates each native and overseas travellers
First up, what precisely are familiarisation trips?
In the method of doing the analysis for this function, I’ve seen that many specialists skip defining the time period, and I discover this annoying as a result of not everyone seems to be clued in on what it means.
So let me put it merely right here: a familiarisation journey / fam journey is outlined as a promotional exercise on the a part of a tourism board, airline, hospitality supplier, or cruise agency whereby travel and tourism professionals are invited to tour a selected vacation spot in an effort to increase the placement’s picture, expose it to a wider or extra various market, and enhance site visitors into the world.
Fam trips are, certainly, a good way to offer members first-hand expertise of what a location has to supply, primarily immersing them instantly into its tradition, traditions, and sights.
Regardless of whether or not members are travel agents and tour operators, travel media and influencers, and even tourism officers and diplomats, fam trips must be handled as a useful platform for studying past mere familiarisation.
Attendees at ITE HCMC 2025 had been inspired to attempt their hand on the age-old craft of silk portray in Ho Chih Minh City
Broadening horizons via hands-on expertise
One of the extra memorable sights supplied to media and influencers protecting ITE HCMC 2025 was a sequence of on-site workshops instructing a wide range of conventional crafts from silk portray to baking banh mi from scratch.
Indeed, whereas fam trips function an expression of nationwide satisfaction for organisers, they will function a approach of broadening private horizons for members.
As a report from The Tourist Space places it: “Those who are visiting can see the inspirational impact [such experiences] have, the excitement of returning home to share the news of what they have learned and how they visualise ways in which they could implement similar practices within their own destinations.”
That mentioned, fam trips supply an perception right into a location’s historical past, intrinsic practices and traditions, and the trajectory of its socio-cultural in addition to financial growth.
By doing so, members get first-hand data on what methods helped draw travellers into the world, what prompts them to remain and/or return, and how the group has benefitted from tourism over time.
The tunnels and outdated camps in Cu Chi, a group to the northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, inform travellers the grim story of how the folks survived all through the conflict years
Beyond the great thing about places
At the identical time, fam trips aren’t only a approach for nations to indicate off magnificence spots, however additionally they function residing lectures on their historical past, together with the darker aspect of it.
Case in level: Vietnam has by no means shied away from bringing fam tour teams into areas just like the Cu Chi Tunnels on the northwestern outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City in an effort to learn the way atypical folks fared all through the Vietnam War.
At Cu Chi, tour members are led via jungle paths to the precise tunnels used all through the conflict, those that led to bunkers that served as strongholds and secure homes for the locals, in addition to those who had been laid as traps towards the enemy.
Such excursions are additionally supplied outdoors of Asia, with guests making their method to Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco and the Holocaust Memorials in Europe.
These function a bodily reminder of the savage impression that legal exercise and conflict have on nations, and function visible and psychological warnings to these within the current day of the results that these could have on society in the event that they occur once more.
For diplomats taken on a fam tour to those places, they function meals for thought to help steer their considering in direction of extra peaceful relations with their world neighbours.
For the media, however, it helps to create a extra holistic view of a vacation spot, permitting for a extra goal tone when presenting it to the general public.
The Pier-2 Arts Centre in Kaohsiung’s Asia New Bay Area is an industrial space that’s now a hub for the town’s creatives
Before you go…
Prior to participating in a familiarisation journey, I discover that it pays to be ready for it effectively beforehand.
In which case, listed here are a number of ideas that would help you alongside:
- Do your analysis By this, I would really like you to take a actually good take a look at your vacation spot: know its historical past and geography, get to know key sights and how these have appealed to each native and overseas travellers; even go so far as what specialities are intrinsic to the world;
- Know the folks Be certain who your level individual for the fam journey, together with any related contacts you may get in contact with for important data, interviews, and even emergencies;
- Know what to ask This is particularly relevant to members of the media and influencers on such trips and is said to the primary two factors. Knowing the world and the important thing folks concerned will help you ask the fitting questions. This is especially useful if the fam journey is held together with or instantly after a key occasion similar to a travel commerce conference or a significant exposition;
- Prepare your self As in all circumstances, make sure you costume appropriately for the local weather and tradition of the world you’re visiting. Be certain to behave in a circumspect method and be conscious of your environment. Likewise, be proactive and advise your host organisations of any bodily situations you might have which may impression the journey each for your self and everybody else.
While fam trips are work trips in a really technical sense, figuring out the terrain so to talk will allow you to benefit from the expertise and come away with a greater understanding of the world round you.
The submit How fam trips help travel agents and media promote cultural tourism globally appeared first on Travel Daily Media.
Source link
