When rain turns me on: traveling in the low season
From the Blog, The Good, the Bad, and the Funky, by Yvette Jong, for HOTELSmag.com
with international tourism surpassing 1.2 billion and continuing to rise, some top destinations have lost the appeal that made them famous to begin with. Other than finding bargains, there's so much more to gain when traveling in the low season.
Traveling to top destinations in the low season isn’t so much a choice as much as it is a necessity given my work schedule. But the more I do it, the more I realize how pleasurable it is. I can enjoy great airline and hotel deals, avoid crowds, connect with locals at a truly personal level, and even enjoy unseasonably great weather.
In the past few years I’ve had the luxury of being the only guest in the Porini Tented Camps in the Kenyan Mara, surrounded by thousands of acres of exclusive game reserve, hippos, lions and still able to catch the migration in the low season. In Cappadocia this past winter I was the only one rambling through underground caves typically visited by large crowds in an otherwise claustrophobic space. And, after a week of roaming the streets in Stone Town, Zanzibar in the rainy season, I was recognized by locals who knew me by name, and vice versa.
While we can’t ignore the sad truth that changing seasonality patterns are negatively impacting economies that rely particularly on agriculture, year-round sunshine or winter powder, there’s something to be said about the ability to attract tourists in new and innovative ways during the low season.
See more and read comments at: HotelsMag.com
Craft House Founder and Director, Yvette Jong, contributes regularly to her HOTELS Magazine Blog titled, "The Good, the Bad and the Funky." Topics of discussion include all aspects of hospitality development, operations, branding, marketing, human resources, sustainability and much more.