The days of jam-packed itineraries to tick off multiple countries in a week are coming to an end, as travellers are now rediscovering the slower, “weird and wonderful” side of travel, according to former Luxury Escapes and TripADeal executive, Trent Ellen.
“It’s almost like a badge of honour now to go and find destinations that no one’s been,” he told travelBulletin in an exclusive interview.
Ellen has also observed a “disconnect” between culture and tourism for some time, describing parts of the travel industry as traditionally being “very polished, very transactional”.
“This new generation seems to really want to connect to culture, connect with each other,” he said.
According to Expedia’s 2025 report, 63% of consumers say they are likely to visit “a detour destination” on their next trip, taking in less well-known, less crowded cities and regions, while a Booking.com report found that 73% want their money to go back to the local community and 77% are seeking authentic experiences representative of the local culture.
It is this desire to embrace slow travel and relish experiences that Ellen has taken on the role of general manager of Arrival, a new online travel brand he helped launch alongside comedians Jack Steele and Matt Ford from The Inspired Unemployed this week.
Meanwhile, Quentin Nolan is CEO of the new business, juggling his global music festival Snow Machine and online snow resource Mountainwatch at the same time.
Here, Ellen discusses the growing desire for travellers to search for cultural experiences, the rise of slow travel and the lessons he learnt from TripADeal and Luxury Escapes that he is implemented at Arrival.
Why do you think more people are interested in slow travel these days?
I think people want to do their own thing at their own pace.
I’m always a big, big fan of not making too many plans, because you’re always going to find that hidden gem, and if you start tailoring too many things, you kind of lose that exploration side of it.
In the last couple of years, you’ve seen travellers start ticking boxes and getting the right photo in the right area. But now I feel like it’s coming back a little bit, where people are trying to find that hidden restaurant that they will probably remember for the rest of their lives, or they’ll run into strangers at a bar and have a story or a close friend for the rest of their life.
That is what slow travel is, that kind of exploration and getting lost. I want to get lost when I travel.
What do you think is driving people’s desire to look for off-the-beaten-path destinations?
It’s almost like a badge of honour now to go and find destinations that no one’s visited. I’ve never seen this before in the industry, but I’m getting people reach out to me who have a music festival in Mongolia, or they want to go motorbiking through Kyrgyzstan, stay in yurts and hike through the mountains on horseback.
I didn’t see that 10 years ago because it was the OTA and flash sale boom and it was driven by discounts, but now it seems like people are driven by really raw and authentic experiences in really weird and interesting places.
What are the important lessons you learnt about customers from TripADeal and Luxury Escapes?
My time at Luxury Escapes really taught me to uncover the story of a hotel and understand what they’re doing differently and why a customer would want to stay there. We very quickly learned that OTAs were very transactional, so we wanted to create a story to understand where the chef had come from, or what their signature cocktails and dishes were, so we could really understand the inner-workings and dynamics of that hotel.
That’s the kind of storytelling we’ve taken into Arrival. We are creating a narrative, and we’re letting people explore off-the-beaten-path experiences. It’s allowing people to connect in a different way to travel, rather than just putting a trip up online with a price point and hoping for the best.
How would you describe the gap that Arrival is trying to address in the market?
We saw a gap in the market for the next generation of travellers coming through. Contiki has been a part of the industry for my entire lifetime, but there seems to be a bit of a gap between that backpacker-style of holiday and Luxury Escapes, so we thought of the next generation of travellers coming through.
There seems to be this need for connection. We live in a very disconnected world, and we wanted a platform that was more culturally relevant, and not just infused with Instagramable cliches or hidden through just a haze of discounts. We wanted something that would go back to an authentic style of travel. We wanted to put a spotlight on things like music festivals, surf packages, ski packages and wellness retreats – it was the idea of taking something that’s been living in the group chat for the last three years and making it happen for people.
We wanted to create a list of really vetted experiences where we’ve taken the guesswork out of it for you and really highlight the weird and wonderful of travel
We wanted to focus on the experience, not just the hotel, not just the destination. We’re not ticking boxes and seeing 15 countries in nine days while going through Europe.
Can you give me some examples of these experiences?
For sure. We found a company in Sri Lanka that owns 40 tuk tuks and we’re doing a nine-day experience from the mountains to the beach, where we’re taking 80 people over to Sri Lanka each day. It’s kind of an adventure rally. You’ve got to get from point A to point B. Everything’s arranged but in the middle, you might break down, (we’ve got a mechanic in convoy with you) and there’ll be cultural challenges along the way.
We found a gentleman in the Mediterranean that owns some yachts and is an avid rock climber. So there is a package where people and their friends can take out a private yacht, sail down to the Amalfi and rock climb up some of the cliffs, then perch up there and take themselves out to dinner.
We partnered with music festival Snow Machine Queenstown, we’ve got hiking through the Dolomites and we’ve got a women’s surf takeover in Indonesia.
Do you plan to work with travel agents in the future at Arrival?
One day we would definitely like to work with agents, that’s for sure. We’ve got to launch, we’ve got to prove our concepts, but we would definitely love to work with agents. We love agents because they’ve got the same relationships with their clients that we want to have with our partners. So it’s definitely something on the cards and we’d love to consider it in the future.
