Time for something different…

This New Years Eve, a group of friends and I were having dinner. At someone’s prompting, we all shared our five favourite moments of 2019. Two things stood out. First, everyone included at least one memory from a holiday. And secondly, in all those holiday-related moments what people said mattered was not the place, but the time. It was the experience, shared with people they loved, that they treasured.

This may seem a fairly trite observation. After all, we are endlessly reminded that we live in an experience economy, or that this year is the year of experiential tourism. But those are more often experience as object to be acquired and desired – the highest, deepest, fastest, loudest. It’s life as theme park.

The experiences my friends recounted over dinner were far smaller – they were about time spent in nature, with family, with friends. Laughing over drinks at a campsite. Slowing down. Simply being together away from the need to achieve any superlative firsts.

Also none of them really demanded that we go far away. They all required a change of scene. But that could have been no further than the neighbouring county. All they really required is that they all stopped doing the same work in the same place every day and went ‘on holiday’ somewhere else.

To finish this story, please read the original post on World Travel Market.