🏰🛠️🧠 Transformative tourism is about self-discovery and personal growth. It is for you if you feel stuck/uninspired, lack self-awareness & purpose, feel culturally & socially isolated, need personal resilience & adaptability, seek authentic & meaningful experiences… or if you look for a job/career to better the world by solving these problems for others. My 10+ years in the tourism & hospitality industry included many encounters/visits/experiences (e.g. Japanese survivor of Nagasaki atomic bomb) and I visited countries before so I was myself transformed. Ideas & examples below. When you do such tourism, share your impressions through #TransformativeTourism.
🏰🛠️How does it help?
🏰🛠️🧠 Transformative tourism removes you from your daily routines, freshens perspectives through wonder & disorientation, highlights one’s value & identity through contrasts, connects to humanity through real-world interactions with diverse locals/communities/cultures, immerses into never-seen-before nature, generates resilience & self-confidence through expected/unexpected challenges beyond your comfort zones, and provides authenticity where mass tourism fails.
🏰🛠️Definition Nuances
🏰🛠️🧠 Transformative tourism does not need to be transformative travel. You can do transformative tourism near your home; no need to be rich and fly abroad (consider moving abroad instead). Also, some experiences are travel-specific; for example riding the Orient Express or getting insights about climate change while riding a train (one of my trains was stopped for the day because summer heat had deformed the rails making continuing dangerous — I’d never have thought that possible without that trip). Finally remote tourism is possible if you are poor, hospitalized or in charge of kids; Japan Travel KK did live virtual tours (and I attended some) during the covid pandemic.
🏰🛠️ Examples
🏰🛠️🧠 Japan is an ideal destination for transformative tourism due to its rich history and cultural traditions.
Martial Arts Tourism
Martial arts tourism may transform your mind in minutes whether you watch or practice. Even just visiting a dojo exposes to forms of respect like bowing to the sensei (= instructor) or founder’s photo. Japanese martial arts are lifelong technical & spiritual journeys with roots in Shintoism and Zen Buddhism, as expressed by the “do” (= way) starting dojo (= place + way) and ending judo, kendo, kyudo… Major destinations include the birthplaces of sumo Katsuragi city, karate Okinawa archipelago, aikido Kasama city… and the hosts of national tournaments & demonstrations e.g. Tokyo metropolis with its Nippon Budokan. Even as a karateka, I got inspired while trying naginata halberd during a pilot tour for a tourism consulting project.
🏰🛠️ Pilgrimages
🏰🛠️🧠 Following pilgrimage routes like Kumano-Kodo and Shikoku o-henro pilgrimage is transformative like other famous world pilgrimages, bringing opportunities for introspection & endurance, disconnection from usual & digital life, and reconnection with nature and inner self. The difference for many would be the spiritual significance of the Shinto (?) sites (indigenous) and for many westerners also of the Buddhist sites due to typical Christian/Muslim/Jewish backgrounds.
🏰🛠️ Purposeful & Vegan
🏰🛠️🧠 Miyoko Schinner organizes transformative travel in Japan (along with India & Tanzania) for vegans but I think non-vegans would be more transformed at least by being exposed to that other way of thinking in addition to the local cultures, etc.
🏰🛠️Buddhism
🏰🛠️🧠 Zen Retreats and Buddhist Temple Stays (shukubo) may cultivate mindfulness and mental clarity through the practice of zazen meditation, calligraphy, and other Zen disciplines. Simple vegan/vegetarian meals may also bring a new perspective on plant-based & cruelty-free lifestyles. You may bring back home skills to quiet your mind and find inner peace.
🏰🛠️ Crafts
🏰🛠️🧠 More than just a souvenir-making class, Japanese traditional craft activities and art workshops teach patience, precision, and the appreciation of imperfection. For example, kintsugi (art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer) is about embracing flaws and seeing them as part of a beautiful, unique history, which is a powerful metaphor for personal healing and growth. I recommend immersive workshops in traditional Japanese crafts like pottery, indigo dyeing, or kintsugi.