Mindful travel and mindfulness in general have grown tremendously in 2019 and are set to continue that trend in 2020. So, as a travel agent and tour operator, it’s smart to expand your business offerings to that travel niche, too.
This is especially true for mindful travel in Italy, a country that, thanks to its spectacular landscapes, phenomenal food and great cultural landmarks, is simply made for modern mindful travel retreats.
Meditation travel experience & destinations: trends and suggestions for 2020
Experiences Should Cater to All Interests
Today’s travel consumers trend toward experiences rather than things, an undeniable evolution in the travel industry overall. This is why mindful travel should include several other activities besides meditation and yoga sessions.
Examples of additional activities that we offer here at FindYourItaly include horseback riding, cooking classes and hiking an ancient pilgrimage route.
Meditation Is the New Yoga
While yoga is still a very popular way to find physical and mental balance, it is no longer the center of a hype. It’s well established now, its benefits tested and proven once and again. Nowadays, it’s meditation that’s at the forefront of psychological well-being. Once a fringe activity limited to “hippies and Buddhists”, it’s now a common thing to do, popularized by celebrities, writers, sportspeople and TV personalities.
Here at FindYourItaly, we focus on both yoga and meditation, two practices that complement each other exceptionally well in terms of finding inner peace. We believe that mindful travel in Italy, although already increasing in popularity, has tremendous potential.
Solo Meditation Trips Get More Popular
Since meditation and mindfulness are pretty much a solitary activity anyway–they’re inward-focused practices–it’s not unusual for people to go on solo mindful travel trips. This is hardly an activity you do with a group of friends or family members.
Therefore, travel agents should really focus their marketing strategies related to mindful travel in Italy on solo travelers. This travel industry demographic will only grow in 2020.
Increased Focus on Nature Getaways
Meditation, yoga, spiritual well-being and basically all things related to that are typically more popular in urban environments. It’s also those people who have a distinct lack of access to natural area (with the exception, of course, of urban parks).
As a result, many people looking for mindful travel destinations will pick those that feature beautiful landscapes, have rural scenery and/or are in remote locations. There’s a definite trend toward nature getaways, not only in travel in general but unquestionably also in mindful travel.
Italy, with its spectacular and diverse natural scenery, has the potential to blossom into one of the world’s greatest mindful travel destinations.
It’s a Cure for Overtourism
Hundreds of millions of people travel every year. And while that in itself doesn’t need to be a problem, it is problematic when many of them go to the same destinations. Everyone wants to see the Mona Lisa, walk along Venetian canals, visit the Colosseum and explore Florence. Mass tourism, or overtourism, is a major 21st-century problem.
Mindful travel is a possible cure for that. Mindfulness, after all, stands for awareness and peacefulness, both mentally and physically. This new trend is a fantastic opportunity for travel agents to target people who realize the huge problems of overtourism and, while still wanting to travel, don’t want to contribute to it.
At FindYourItaly, we offer several yoga and wellness retreats in various mindful travel destination in Italy. We organize meditation travel experiences that are very focused on personal growth while exploring the destination.
We don’t just offer a spiritual retreat, we offer activities to help people to reconnect with nature and oneself thanks to genuine experiences, such as meeting local people and experiencing the destination focused on the wellbeing of the person.
You can check out our mindful travel offerings on this page.
