What is the “Transformative” Travel Trend?

There are a lot of travel trends out there — beyond mere business and luxury travel, there’s wellness travel, spiritual travel, humanitarian travel, eco-travel, experiential travel and now … transformative travel?

Transformative travel is a break off from experiential travel. It’s not merely experiencing the local culture, but allowing the local culture to transform you through changes in worldview and perspective.

The Transformational Travel Council defines it well: “Transformational travel is any travel experience that empowers people to make meaningful, lasting changes in their life.” The council encourages travelers to head out on their own version of the Hero’s Journey, where they can encounter challenges with openness and mindfulness, and then reflect on those challenges for a lasting change.

The Council notes there are many benefits of transformational travel — you disconnect from your everyday stresses, expand your worldview and learn more about yourself in the process, build relationships and simply live with more meaning.

But what does transformational travel look like? Couldn’t just about every traveler say at least one trip changed their life in some facet?

According to the Council, to identify a transformational travel experience, it must meet most if not all of the following criteria:

• Take place in a dramatically different destination from your home
• Include traveling with intention but openness
• Directly and personally engage with locals to learn about their culture
• Seek out challenging experiences, whether those challenges are cultural, spiritual or physical
• Invite others into powerful conversations
• Include personal reflection through writing, prayer, meditation or other reflections
• Teach you impactful lessons
• End in a plan to apply what you’ve learned to your life

Just this year, the Council started offering trips that can easily fit their requirements; though the dates have yet to be decided, you can find information on its site, regarding trips to Patagonia, Switzerland, Thailand, Peru, the Faroe Islands and the Dolomites.