According to the recently published cultural mindset study from Culture Trip, 60% of people in the US and UK say that their outlook on life is shaped by influences from different cultures. At the same time, the economic landscape of the last decade has resulted in younger generations being more interested in collecting experiences than possessions.
Welcome to the "new culture economy"
The collision of the two trends—globalization and the experience economy—has caused a new travel concept with cultural curiosity at its heart. This is the "new culture economy". The phenomenon is having a profound impact on people's interactions and definitions of cultural exploration and presents an incredible commercial opportunity.
Education, travel, exposure to other customs and the cultural mashup that energes are the more influential social effects of globalization. More than half of respondents from the cultural mindset study have friends living overseas, while 78% have friends or family of different nationalities. Besides, the confines of student debt and unaffordable housing have created a shift in spending patterns, and so a new set of values has emerged in which experiences matter more than ownership.
Why we travel
People's social networks expose them to digital influencers and keep them connected to friends or family living in other parts of the world. The combination of these cultural, social and personal drivers has helped us to identify four cultural mindsets.
⒈Culturally aware—The motivation to travel among this group is anchored in pleasure. They seek out familiarity and select destinations close to home or reflective of their own culture.
⒉Culturally curious—Those with this mindset travel to discover new things and disrupt their everyday routines. They seek some familiarity, but also want to explore boundaries. They want to be seen as someone who is interested in culture, but this is often expressed in terms of visual interest and well－known sites.
⒊Culturally immersive—For this group, travel is all about adventure and personal growth. They want to be seen as highly cultured and as "explorers"; they are happy to celebrate when things go wrong, which they see as the key ingredient to making memories.
⒋Culturally fluid—The group's identity is shaped by their familiarity with travel. They feel at home everywhere and have adopted a hybrid cultural identity. Memories are often tied to experiences with people that represent the culture they are travelling to rather than sites.
The environmental trade－off
The cultural mindset research also sheds light on how people perceive the effect of tourism on the environment and the measures they take to reduce their impact. Two in five millennials—more than any other generation—worry that tourism has a negative impact on the environment and over a third limit how much they travel to reduce their impact.
While most people won't control their desire to travel entirely, good news is that those who see the world are also the ones taking measures in their everyday lives to reduce their impact on the environment.
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How Curiosity and Globalization Are Driving A New Approach to Travel |
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Introduction Being to different cultures has an impact on people's outlook on life. |
The economic situation of the past ten years can for young people's shift in values away from materialism. |
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Welcome to the "new culture economy" The collision of globalization and the experience economy has given birth to a new travel pattern, which cultural curiosity. |
A shift in spending patterns has appeared in that a trip is more than a house. |
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Why we travel How the cultural, social and personal factors helps the researchers identify different cultural mindsets. |
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Culturally aware |
People in this group travel for the fun of it and prefer close to where they live to seek some familiarity. |
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Culturally curious |
People with this mindset can be regarded as someone interested in culture and for exploring boundaries. |
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Culturally immersive |
People belonging to this group think travel will to personal growth and create something worth recalling. |
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Culturally fluid |
For this group, they are with travel and experiences with the local people representing the culture count. |
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The environmental trade－off |
of the negative effect tourism has on the environment, those travelling are willing to take measures like setting a limit to their travel. |
