Festival tourism demand goes up for those looking for unique experiences

Saturday, August 4, 2018

The demand for ‘Festival Tourism’ has skyrocketed, especially among millennials who continue to look for unique and buzz worthy experiences, according to Wego, the leading online travel marketplace in the Middle East and Africa.

 
Mamoun Hmedan, Wego Managing Director for MENA and India said, “Today’s global travellers are willing to spend that extra penny to experience the magic of seasonal, music, cultural, and even shopping festivals. It’s the Gen-Y’s penchant for unique and authentic cultural encounters and human-interactions that drives their interest to attend festivals – halfway across the world.”

 
Music festivals have become one of the greatest travel motivators of the recent times. It is extravaganzas like Tomorrowland in Belgium, Exit in Serbia, Mawazine in Morocco, Jerash in Jordan and Coachella in the United States that have popularized the idea of travelling for the sound of music.

 
In the last few years, many nations across the world have seen a sharp increase in travel searches before major music festivals. For instance, England, which hosts the largest number of music festivals in the world, saw a 20% rise in music tourism in 2016 – according to research by UK Music.

 
“Music festivals are able to successfully attract a large number of tourists and even surpass some of the major sporting events in terms of attendance,” said Hmedan. “Since we live in an era of ‘if it’s not on social media, it didn’t happen’, the new-age traveller seeks to make memories at such musical events and share them online with friends.”

 
Speaking specifically of the Middle East, Hmedan mentioned that local festivals such as Dubai Shopping Festival continue to attract tourists from around the world.

 
Other GCC countries are also working towards increasing the appeal of festival tourism, both within the region as well as internationally. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for example, is keen on popularizing its own share of cultural festivals including cultural fests of Janadriyah and Souq Okaz and the Jeddah Summer Festival.

 
To keep up with this trend, travel providers have already started to offer packages to off-beat destination festivals like the Sarawak Rainforest Music Festival in Borneo, Air Guitar World Championships in Finland and the Hornbill Festival, in the north-east of India.

 
Additionally, classic cars festivals and races (especially across the UK) are growing in popularity among the world’s auto aficionados and sport enthusiasts. Interest is also growing for culinary tourism, as more tourists are planning their holidays around food festivals such as the Dubai Food Festival, UAE; Pizzafest in Naples, Italy; Maine Lobster Festival in Maine, USA and Thailand’s Vegetarian Festival.

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