Travel Trends: 2019 & Beyond

As a senior lecturer who’s passionate about tourist and guest behaviour, it came as no surprise that Dr Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore would tackle travel trends and the effect it has on women at ZafigoX 2018.

In her 20-minute talk, she ran us through the fundamental reasons of why women travel despite it being unsafe and an activity that’s considered to be a luxury once they’ve become mothers — leaving your child to be cared for by someone else for a couple of ‘Me, Myself and I’ days is typically frowned upon. So, why do women do it? The answers she provides are the result of plenty of research and statistics but the essence of it all is simple: women want to see the world, create memories with those they love and for themselves. Catheryn was not satisfied with those answers, she wasn’t convinced that that’s all it was, so she looked into the matter with a magnifying glass.

Through this, she found four trends that empower and cultivate amazing travelling experiences. One that stuck out to us the most was Transformative Tourism, which is travel that “aims to improve one’s well-being, facilitates learning, and improves the development of the self and those around us.” Sort of like what Eat, Pray, Love was about that the movie didn’t quite capture.

It’s absolutely necessary for individuals to feel their good about themselves in order to create a better quality of life for themselves. And some of us do that through travelling, as Catheryn came to learn. Women feel more liberated, more confident, more adventurous, and curious to learn about the world and themselves while exploring the unknown and the new. This explains why yoga retreats have become increasingly popular over the years.

But don’t just take our word for it, listen to Dr Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore too. Watch her set entitled Travel Trends 2019 and Beyond: What Will It Be for Women below:

ZafigoX returns on 21 and 22 September 2019. Tickets are being sold from RM350 for a single standard 2-day all-access pass. Buy them today at Zafigo.