Many travellers today want more from their journeys — experiences that feel authentic, unusual insights, more meaningful moments, and connections that are tangible and human. At first all of that threw up quite a conundrum for the travel industry. I saw touring and cruise companies working to create authentic experiences — which, in itself, seems verging on contradictory.
After all, “authentic” means genuine, original, true and real. But things have matured and settled — in large part as operators, organisations and individuals have been drawn into the orbit of the travel industry, just as this satellite of demand has itself been drawn into the heart of tourism. What do I mean? Well, in these pages we have examples from Jeju Island, off the mainland of South Korea.
There are the Haenyeo women divers now engaged in tourism, young Kang Bo Ram teaching visitors how to dye fabric with natural dyes and Dongbaek village drawing on its long history of producing camellia oil to develop a community-based tourism project that has just been recognised internationally. As Jeju Island guide and new friend, Oh Jeoung Sil, announces: “The 21st century is the Era of Culture.” These are just some examples, experienced by me this week on an island less than six hours flight east of Singapore with Scoot.
And I think I could give equal examples in any week in many countries now. Across the world, there’s been a growing interest in artisan produce and products, which feeds in to o.