By: Zishan Khan

According to a well-known proverb, "Wisdom comes with age; understanding comes with travel". Local tourism refers to exploring your own country's territory. Consumers still favor local goods, services, and experiences despite globalization and digitization. Recent years have seen a meteoric surge in domestic travel, which has greatly benefited neighborhood hotels. Travelers, notably millennials, prefer quick trips to nearby locations that don't require a passport. For millennials, who prefer staycations to expensive, administratively onerous international trips, the concept of a vacation has undergone a significant transformation.

On the other hand, local tourism is picking up steam and developing thriving local economies to support neighborhood communities. To revive and expand small enterprises, the rising demand for regional tourism is equally essential. The domestic travel industry's problems are being reduced by the surge in local tourism, which can benefit the nation's economy by providing a safety net for younger enterprises. The largest benefits of local tourism are certainly growth and job creation since it motivates owners of specialized hospitality businesses to expand and hire locally. This has a cascading impact on nearby suppliers and guarantees that companies stay in touch with the neighborhood to serve local tourists.

The "millennials", a generation mostly born between 1980 and 1995, are likely the biggest consumers of domestic travel. So, the lower end of this cohort is in their mid-20s, while the upper end is approaching their mid-30s. The trend towards local tourism can be attributed to millennials, who travel more than any other generation and value authenticity and soul-stirring experiences. Additionally, they firmly support the concepts of fulfillment and sustainability, which is having a good impact on the dynamics of travel within the tourism sector. They identify with a local holiday that allows them to keep more in touch with their roots by engaging with local cuisines, cultures, and accommodations.

Millennials are motivated by a sense of cultural pride and a strong sense of belonging, which causes them to divert their attention to local attractions. By capitalizing on the rising demand for their services, local hospitality companies can forge insurmountable prospects and develop enthralling local vacations. For millennials to embrace the local culture when traveling, an authentically local experience must be created. Travel has altered in the eyes of millennials, who choose an "experimental attitude." A true millennial looks for fresh and interesting experiences while narrowing down potential travel destinations.

By designing rustic and distinctly localized experiences, local hospitality firms may live up to these expectations. Beach tourism, adventure tourism, cultural tourism, rural tourism, ecotourism, medical tourism, wildlife tourism, or a creative combination of the aforementioned can all be classified as local tourism. The secret to building enduring relationships with your travel customer is to provide inclusive and rich travel experiences. Millennials have immediate access to the internet and utilize social media frequently. For millennials, using their smartphones as a planning tool is the best option.

Social media is always used to obtain, experience, and share travel-related information. It is therefore time to open an account on social media if your firm is in the hospitality industry. Social media engagement with millennials may be achieved through keeping an active social media presence, live streaming, forming alliances with influencers, and publishing attractive promotions. When millennials make up your target market, hoteliers must make sure that visitors can quickly book their accommodations through your website, OTAs, and social media.

Maintaining your social media persona is crucial if you want to establish long-lasting relationships. What can millennials anticipate from a local travel adventure? Bringing them closer to their roots, organizing local events, and assisting them in connecting with the neighborhood will help create positive future relationships.

A potential growth and development engine is domestic tourism. The effects of tourism in local communities have a variety of sociocultural effects, including the creation of income, the upgrading of infrastructure, banking and telecommunications services, the creation of jobs, and the generation of tax money for the government. It is the responsibility of local hospitality firms to work with local governments to improve service standards and coordinate marketing initiatives to promote domestic tourism to guarantee that the demand for local tourism is on an upward slope. (KB/IANS)

(Zishan Khan, Chief Acquisition Officer & Co-Founder, Ekostay. IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)