Taking The Road Less Clicked

As millennials equate travel with Instagram, luxury hotels are dishing up never-heard-of edgy and experimental services

- Pankti Mehta Kadakia

It was a telling sign when, last year, the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island made a special announcement: Guests at the sprawling luxury resort could sign up for the services of an exclusive ‘Instagram butler’—a trained staff member to take them to spots along the pearly island that are most conducive for garnering ‘likes’. The media flurry this announcement created sent a loud and clear message: Travel, now, is as much for an audience as it is for the traveller.

A December 2017 report from travel technology firm Sky scanner India says 40 percent of millennial travellers are inspired to go “wherever people aren’t going”. According to the survey, 53 percent of millennials preferred to spend money on activities and experiences, as opposed to accommodation, shopping, food and drink.

In a world where everyone is, by default, a content creator on their social media platforms, there’s a growing need to be unique; this, coupled with a generation that is travelling more, and more passionately, than any previous generation, is prompting a new dimension in travel marketing.

“Travellers no longer care about the size of the room, or whether it has a large TV or an iPad in it,” says Siddharth Yadav, vice president, MRS Hotels, which runs boutique luxury properties in Rajasthan. “Instead, they want to connect with the place, in a way that’s interesting and not intrusive.”