The rise of the digitally savvy urban explorer
By Anijo Mathew
Founder and Chief Experience Officer/Vamonde + Academic Director of the Ed Kaplan Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship/IllinoisTech Chicago
When I first presented the concepts behind my startup, Vamonde, I would mention that travel was changing because people that today’s tourists are looking beyond the Lonely Planet Guides and Travel Channels and National Geographic print magazines for digital stories embedded in place. During one of these presentations, my Project Manager at that time, a young millennial, slowly raised his hand and asked “eh, what is a Lonely Planet Guide?” It struck me at that point that — not only does he not use a Lonely Planet Guide, he had never heard about it!
If this sounds shocking to you…it should. The Lonely Planet guides were seen by many as the definitive travel guide for travelers —it listed tourist and cultural experiences, described places of interest, and provided relevant travel information for almost any part of the world. Most of us (in the pre-millennial generation) used to carry one of these around whenever we visited a new place. It would be an understatement to say that The Lonely Planet guide set a precedent for all tourist guidebooks. Due to the success of the Lonely Planet guides, the travel industry has focused on beautifully designed travelogues, websites and travel artifacts.
However, we are now seeing a massive shift in the way users consume content in this space. In fact, over the course of my research in this space, we have seen the emergence of a whole new demographic of travelers, who I call the digitally savvy urban explorers.
Digitally savvy, because when they arrive at a new place, their first instinct is to reach for digital devices and experiences. Unlike other travelers, this group does not seek out brochures or maps or guidebooks. Print is no longer relevant as a source of information for this demographic. If anything, print is only attractive to this demographic if it is also art (for example: these beautifully illustrated maps of Mumbai designed by The City Story). No matter where they are, they will reach into their pockets, pull out their smart devices, and search.
Second, they are urban explorers because they’re looking for authentic local adventure. They want to go beyond the obvious, the top 10 lists, the concierge recommendations, the generic travel websites…to seek out the secrets of the city. Edelman, for example, says “as local prevails over global, travelers are increasingly interested in authentic experiences in their destination.” It doesn’t always have to be something locals do but it helps — the important thing is that the explorer “found” it and they are able to share it within their networks. In Chicago, we have seen that many travelers will check off the must-do’s (the Bean and the Willis Tower and Millennium Park) on day one. And then on day two they go out into the neighborhoods, see the murals, discover graffiti, and learn about something that interests them. They are part of the long tail generation, ready to amplify their most obscure interests and passions. If they like Blues music, they will seek out local interest networks for the insider scoop on the Blues scene before they reach for a book or even talk face-to-face with people. They may confirm their findings with local sources (such as the concierge at their hotel) but they will not initiate the conversation.
The problem is that the internet is a vast space. Interest networks may exist but not always in the channels that the digital explorers look in. The arbiters of this information — the cultural institutions, the local experts, the tourism organizations are doing very little to reach this group. In most cases, if you are an organization that has the relevant information, chances are the only channels you have access to are social media platforms. These platforms were built for users, not for organizations. Furthermore, social media platforms are not built for long form storytelling but for short form status updates. You are lucky if the explorer sees your update for more than 15 seconds before jumping on to a new update. If you are fortunate enough to have a large endowment or have access to tech talent, you can build your own app. However, apps cost money and time. Furthermore, building an entire app around a single narrative does not serve the exploratory nature of these travelers. Can you imagine downloading one app for every experience you are interested in? Think about an alternate universe where instead of Facebook, you were downloading one app for every friend you have.
Digital explorers will search until they find local experiences, whether or not the information is provided by city and cultural authorities. They do this by scraping the internet. Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Wikipedia. Their experience is fragmented, often constructed by piecing together stories from multiple sources. Each institution wants to promote their story, but on their own, they are an island. We’ve found that the most effective strategy is to be connected to all the other institutions in the city such that the aggregate leads to a much larger exploratory experience. This means travelers may come in through one channel — maybe the Chicago Architecture Foundation because they are interested in architecture. As they explore architecture stories, they also discover other stories around beer, history, animals, or Blues that may also interest them. If you are part of a larger network of partners on a single platform, you start engaging a network effect — thereby reducing the costs of reaching out to single traveler!
The digitally savvy urban explorer is a significant new demography that the travel industry must pay attention to. While it is not an age-based demography (you can be digitally savvy and an explorer irrespective of how old you are), it does tend to skew younger. You remember that young millennial who asked about the Lonely Planet Guide? His name is Demaris. There are 55 million tourists who come to Chicago every year. Forty-four (44) percent of all tourists claim that some sort of digital technology influenced their actions while they traveled or use a smartphone at their destination. This means every year nearly 25 million Demaris’ come to Chicago and open their smart devices to search for things. 25 million digitally savvy urban explorers, and growing every year. And that, just in Chicago. Take into account that Gen X, the generation that grew up digital, just passed millennials as the biggest segment of our population; the numbers are simply staggering! Are you paying attention?
