Travelers are continuing to put experiences at the center of their plans, and airlines, banks and hotels are responding with a menu of offerings that money alone often can’t buy.
Credit cards, in particular, are aiming to attract travelers with once-in-a-lifetime experiences, including exclusive concerts, dinners cooked by star chefs, elaborate travel packages featuring celebrity appearances, and access to V.I.P. areas at major events, including film festivals and art fairs. These types of experiences are, in turn, fueling an appetite that is continuing to drive growth in the experiences industry.
Experts say that exclusive and authentic experiences have become more attractive to travelers, sometimes even dictating the choice of destinations. This trend is particularly pronounced for millennials and Generation Z, according to several studies.
“Gen Z is the most travel-hungry generation, not in a luxury sense, but in a ‘collect experiences early and often’ sense,” said Erifili Gounari, the chief executive and founder of the Z Link, a marketing agency focused on younger generations. “A big shift I’m seeing is that Gen Z treats travel less like a vacation and more like a form of self-development, which is why programs offering meaningful or exclusive experiences land so well with them.”
Travel operators say they see experiences as an opportunity to capture a new audience, cement their loyalty and persuade them to spend more with their companies.
The space is only getting more crowded as customers book experiences not just when they travel but also in their daily lives. The industry giant Airbnb, for example, is making a big push for travelers seeking experiences, ramping up the number of events hosted by tastemakers in cities around the world, with options like working out with an Olympian bobsledder in Milan and carving marble with a sculptor in Greece.
Credit cards, hotels and airlines have also linked many of these experiences to loyalty programs, available — sometimes exclusively — with points and miles, a pivot that reflects the battle to win over increasingly fickle millennial and Gen Z customers.
Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel.
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