The put up 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 customers 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 wish to know sufficient a few location in an effort to pitch it to potential prospects.
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 contributors achieve a greater understanding of the situation by its historical past, traditions, tradition, and delicacies.
In this characteristic, we level out a number of the reason why fam trips will be an integral a part of tourism promotion, significantly 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 house international locations or particular places to the world at massive.
The dwell Tangkuban Perahu crater in Bandung, Indonesia serves as a residing ecology lesson that fascinates each native and international travellers
First up, what precisely are familiarisation trips?
In the method of doing the analysis for this characteristic, I’ve observed 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 enhance the situation’s picture, expose it to a wider or extra numerous market, and improve visitors into the realm.
Fam trips are, certainly, a good way to offer contributors first-hand expertise of what a location has to supply, primarily immersing them straight into its tradition, traditions, and points of interest.
Regardless of whether or not contributors are travel agents and tour operators, travel media and influencers, and even tourism officers and diplomats, fam trips needs to be handled as a precious 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 by hands-on expertise
One of the extra memorable points of interest provided to media and influencers overlaying ITE HCMC 2025 was a sequence of on-site workshops instructing quite a lot of conventional crafts from silk portray to baking banh mi from scratch.
Indeed, whereas fam trips function an expression of nationwide pleasure for organisers, they will function a means of broadening private horizons for contributors.
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 stated, fam trips provide 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, contributors get first-hand info on what methods helped draw travellers into the realm, what prompts them to remain and/or return, and how the group has benefitted from tourism over time.
The tunnels and previous camps in Cu Chi, a group to the northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, inform travellers the grim story of how the individuals survived all through the battle years
Beyond the great thing about places
At the identical time, fam trips aren’t only a means for international locations to indicate off magnificence spots, however additionally they function residing lectures on their historical past, together with the darker facet 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 find out how extraordinary individuals fared all through the Vietnam War.
At Cu Chi, tour contributors are led by jungle paths to the precise tunnels used all through the battle, 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 in opposition to the enemy.
Such excursions are additionally provided exterior of Asia, with guests making their approach to Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco and the Holocaust Memorials in Europe.
These function a bodily reminder of the savage influence that felony exercise and battle have on nations, and function visible and psychological warnings to these within the current day of the results that these can 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 the direction of extra peaceful relations with their world neighbours.
For the media, then again, 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 town’s creatives
Before you go…
Prior to collaborating in a familiarisation journey, I discover that it pays to be ready for it nicely beforehand.
In which case, listed below are a number of suggestions that might 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 points of interest and how these have appealed to each native and international travellers; even go so far as what specialities are intrinsic to the realm;
- Know the individuals Be certain you realize who your level individual for the fam journey, together with any related contacts you will get in contact with for important info, interviews, and even emergencies;
- Know what to ask This is very relevant to members of the media and influencers on such trips and is said to the primary two factors. Knowing the realm and the important thing individuals concerned will help you ask the proper questions. This is especially useful if the fam journey is held along with or instantly after a key occasion comparable to a travel commerce conference or a serious exposition;
- Prepare your self As in all instances, you should definitely costume appropriately for the local weather and tradition of the realm you’re visiting. Be certain to behave in a circumspect method and be aware of your environment. Likewise, be proactive and advise your host organisations of any bodily circumstances you could have which may influence the journey each for your self and everybody else.
While fam trips are work trips in a really technical sense, realizing 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 put up How fam trips help travel agents and media promote cultural tourism globally appeared first on Travel Daily Media.
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