No Need to Live Like a Local: All Tourists Welcome
Photo Credit: Tourists was put together by cobbling several parcels of land together and retrofitting some old structures just off the Mohawk Trail in Massachusetts. Tourists
Skift Take
It is time to reclaim the word tourist, and recalibrate it to mean something good. Tourists can see the world with fresh eyes, unencumbered with the daily accumulations of local life. A new hotel in North Adams, Massachusetts, seeks to do just that.
On Experience
Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond. You can read all of his writing here.The idea of "living like a local" has been core to Airbnb's value proposition for some time. Also, the content streams and feeds for many traditional hotel brands around the world have centered on this, giving insider tips intended to make you feel like you live there.
Given that the recurring rallying cry for the travel industry is authenticity, this fact is ironic. Pretending to be a local when you are not is inherently inauthentic.
For too long, the idea of being labeled a tourist has been a no-go. It is a loaded word, laden with images of Americans in fanny packs and lawn-stained New Balance sneakers, speaking clunky French in a Parisian cafe. Or just generally the idea of being not "of" a place, and thus not attuned to its inner rhythms and behaviors, sticking out like a sore thumb.
