Take your travel storytelling off the beaten track
Every trail tells a tale and, with a stratospheric growth in walking vacations, there are more and more ways to create content that gets people talking, and walking. This hiking boot boom has brought some trails to their knees, however. Tourism organizations are starting to listen to the conservationists and realize that the preservation of natural heritage hubs are now at risk. By creating travel content that directs travelers off the beaten path, it not only ticks a vital environmental box, it also helps connect communities that are otherwise ignored by travelers. Communities where stories of landscapes and traditional lifestyles abound. These are the stories travelers want to be guided by.
Photo by Kirsten Alana.
Here are some excellent examples of destinations that are successfully redirecting footfall and, in so doing, creating a growth in online traffic and engagement from travelers.To make your content stand out, let us help you seek out the storytellers off the beaten track. That way, we can create culturally sensitive content that contains a few local people’s secrets of sustainability, many of which they have practiced naturally for generations.
“40% of US travellers stated that COVID-19 has made them rethink the types of destinations they will select, with beach destinations (38.2%) and small towns/rural areas (30%) topping the list. These intentions are already translating into more future bookings for remote destinations such as Alaska and chartered raft trips.” - To recovery and beyond: The future of travel & tourism in the wake of COVID-19, World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), September 2020.
Photo by GLP Films
Salkantay trek to machu picchu
This is the quietest and the best way to get to Machu Picchu if trekking sustainably is what you want to do or promote. Named after Salkantay Mountain, snow-capped for most of the year as it is at an elevation of 6,271m (20,574 ft), this is the highest point in the Vilcabamba Range and one that was revered by the Incas. With many of the traditional trails to Machu Picchu becoming overcrowded, we created a film in partnership with Mountain Lodges of Peru, trekking with one of the trail’s guides, Dalmiro Portillo. In it you can see Dalmiro helping trekkers escape the crowds on a trail that winds around the great peak, taking in views across grasslands, glacial terrain, cloud and subtropical forests.
Photo by GLP Films
Tamsui Kavalan Trails, Taiwan
Taiwan’s Thousand Mile Trail (TMI) circumnavigates the island and is understandably joining the ranks of some of the great long-distance trails for travelers to seek out. However, The Tamsui Kavalan Historical and Cultural Trails were recently created as inland diversions off the beaten path. Created by small communities living in the mountainous regions of the NE Yilan peninsula, they have restored ancient elevated trails using traditional techniques. This act of award-winning regenerative tourism took four years to bring to fruition, and they invited tourists in to help during the process. Taiwan tells tales of trails rather beautifully.
“Everyone here is so excited about the Tamsui Kavalan Trails, because without having a greater impact on the environment, we can connect ourselves with ancestors.” - Cha Fen Lin, NE Yilan Coast Tourism
Camino de Santiago, France and Spain
One of the most famous long-distance walking trails in the world, the Camino de Santiago does suffer from overtourism in many spots. Although there are actually many different routes on this ancient pilgrimage trail, the one with the heaviest traffic is the Camino Francés, or the French Way, which starts in France and crosses over into Spain. Many tourism organizations are now redirecting people onto the other trails and have also created three interesting adaptations to the Camino now: Kayaking, cycling and even horse riding the Camino. This is an example of outdoor tourism providers thinking beautifully outside the box. Can your destination create new approaches to old trails? If so, let’s tell those stories.
Photo by Julia Gerlach.
Exmoor National Park, UK
In response to the surge of walkers during the pandemic, all seeking an outdoor escape, Exmoor National Park did a perfect pivot and created a new collection of ten self-guided Explorer Walks to appeal to day tripping walkers. The aim of these walks is to “help those planning future trips to Exmoor, or who have never been before, to plan their visit carefully and form a deeper connection with the landscape.”
With a new film to publicize the trails, and online content listing the features of each trail, Exmoor National Park gained a lot of national and international media attention and website traffic. These were sustainable tourism experts who saw a problem and, with the help of expert stakeholders, created new products and fine content within no time.
Photo by Sam Vernon.