ALTERNATIVE OR EXPERIENTIAL TRAVEL AS A CONCEPTUAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT TREND

Abstract

The article considers one of the concepts of tourism, which is practically applied under the names of “alternative” or “experiential” tourism. At a certain stage of tourism development, offers clearly different from traditional ones began to appear in the so-called “anti-tourism” formats. These are off-the-beaten-track and off-the-beaten-attraction journeys to the lesser-known tourist destinations, where the most important value is the traveler's non-standard experience. This travel format, conceptualized by Joël Henry in 1990, became the first manifestation of the now-growing phenomenon of personalization of travel services. In modern foreign literature, there are a number of researchers concerned with the very сoncept. It can be considered that today a wide range of terms describing the variety of forms of experiential tourism has been formed, some of which are discussed in the article. Current proposals for experiential travel are summarized in the article, and more than 30 forms of experiential travel grouped into 8 types have been identified. The article also formulates the main principles of experiential travel and considers some issues of their positioning in the market. The tendency of the chronological transformation of the forms of experiential travel, manifested by the transition from the notion of “alternative” to the idea of “conceptual” tourism, is discussed.