We have a dual focus
Helping experiential travel and tourism stakeholders leverage AI innovation, and improving travel’s positive impact through better experience design.
Why boutique AI support
AI is a powerful resource for experiential travel companies, communities and places, but if done wrong, it can suck energy and time with limited results.
We sort out how to make it best for you.
Why better experience design
Smart and soulful experience design is the secret sauce to unlocking tourism as a force for good. But it’s most often ignored! We are experts in refining experiences to align with community values, stewardship and market demand.
Environmental impact
Better protection of sensitive areas: Local knowledge surfaces overlooked ecologically or spiritually important sites.
→ Result: Zoning, timing, or access rules are built into experience design before harm occurs.
Improved visitor flow management: Residents and rangers help identify peak pressure points.
→ Result: New dispersal routes and time-of-day limits reduce rosion, wildlife stress, and waste buildup.
Increased stewardship buy-in:
→ Result:Locals who shape the tourism plan are more likely to enforce and champion environmental behaviors with visitors.
Example: A fishing community voices concern about overuse of a spawning inlet. The strategy redirects kayaking experiences and builds interpretation around sustainable practices.
Cultural impact
Safeguarding of intangible heritage: Elders and culture-bearers define what stories should be shared and what should be protected.
→ Result: Cultural experiences are offered with depth and dignity.
Empowered representation: Communities become the narrators of their own stories.
→ Result: Experiences are not extractive or staged, but co-led and authentic.
Intergenerational transfer: Young people participate in shaping offerings: learning language, tradition, and creative forms.
→ Result: Tourism strengthens, rather than erodes, cultural continuity.
Example: A heritage craftsperson proposes a visitor-involved apprenticeship program rather than a passive demo, restoring pride and skill transmission.
Economic impact
More equitable benefit distribution: Engagement surfaces informal or marginalized actors (e.g., home cooks, farm families, artists) who are invited into experience delivery.
→ Result: Money flows beyond tourism’s usual suspects.
Experiences built around existing capacity: Activities are planned within the community’s current or desired hosting limits.
→ Result: Less burnout, higher quality, fewer costly resets.
Increased visitor satisfaction and spend: Guests value meaning, story, and access to “real life.”
→ Result: Experiences co-created with locals have higher emotional impact, and often command premium pricing.
Example: A group of local women propose a seasonal food walk, supported with storytelling and home gardens. It becomes a top-reviewed, bookable experience with near-zero overhead.
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Environmental impact
Visitor dispersal by design: Experiences are spread across geography and seasons to avoid crowding and overuse.
→ Result: ecosystems get breathing room, and carbon/climate pressures reduce.
Limits are embedded, not enforced later: Community co-sets caps on group size, frequency, or routes.
→ Result: fewer conflicts, more trust, and reduced environmental degradation.
Infrastructure follows experience, not vice versa: You avoid defaulting to high-impact tourism zones.
→ Result: nature shapes tourism, rather than the other way around.
Example: Instead of expanding trail use in a fragile alpine zone, the strategy centers a river-based experience with Indigenous guides, shifting attention and pressure downstream.
Cultural impact
Experiences match place identity: Community values and stories shape what is offered.
→ Result: guests connect more deeply, and cultural coherence is preserved.
Cultural limits respected: Communities choose what not to share.
→ Result: sacred, sensitive, or commodified elements are left untouched.
Curation over expansion: Strategy focuses on deepening a few offerings, not adding more.
→ Result: culture is shared with care instead of being spread thin.
Example: The experience strategy replaces a daily village tour with a monthly seasonal gathering designed by youth and Elders.
Economic impact
Balanced growth across seasons: The strategy intentionally develops experiences for shoulder/off-peak times.
→ Result: steadier income, less burnout, and better use of local talent year-round.
Alignment with market demand: Offerings are refined to match high-value traveler segments.
→ Result: higher yield per guest, not just more guests.
Community buy-in = stronger product: When locals co-design the plan, delivery improves.
→ Result: better storytelling and word-of-mouth reputation.
Example: A dispersed itinerary combining nature walks, storytelling, and food experiences generates 15% more income in low season.
Environmental impact
Reduced ecological footprint per visitor: Experiences use low-impact infrastructure and caps.
→ Result: Pressure on sensitive sites drops.
Regeneration embedded in delivery: Experiences actively contribute to ecosystem health.
→ Result: Tourism becomes a driver of repair.
Monitoring in place: Experience providers trained to track environmental and cultural signs and report anomalies.
→ Result: Issues like trail degradation or wildlife stress are caught early and managed collaboratively.
Example: A hiking series includes biodiversity education and conservation tracking.
Cultural impact
Authentic delivery, not performance: Locals are storytellers, not support staff.
→ Result: Guests gain grounded insight.
Community pride increases: Hosting revives community self-image.
→ Result: Youth re-engage with heritage.
Example: An Indigenous canoe journey includes protocols briefing; guests become advocates for respect.
Economic impact
Revenue stays local: Stronger pathways for local operators.
→ Result: Reduced leakage and better livelihoods.
More year-round stability: Experience diversity supports shoulder seasons.
→ Result: steadier jobs and income.
Example: A coordinated artisan route becomes a sustainable tourism pillar.
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Explore more to see the negative environmental, cultural and economic impacts.
Environmental impact
→ Result: Erosion, wildlife disruption, and overcrowding escalate without coordinated management.
Popular experiences (e.g., ATVs, drones, hot tubs) proliferate without environmental vetting.
→ Result: Sensitive habitats are degraded and restoration becomes costly or impossible.
No local monitoring or stewardship system is built.
→ Result: Impacts go untracked until damage is visible, often too late for prevention.
Example: A trending waterfall hike is promoted by influencers. Foot traffic triples, but no trail improvements or erosion controls exist; wetlands are trampled within a season.
Experiences are based on assumptions or stereotypes, not real stories.
→ Result: Culture is commodified or oversimplified: communities feel misrepresented.
Outsiders curate the narrative: locals become staff, not storytellers.
→ Result: Community pride erodes, and tourism becomes a source of tension, not expression.
Important protocols and limits are bypassed.
→ Result: Sacred sites are visited without permission; disrespectful behavior increases.
Example: A local tradition is turned into a daily show without Elder approval: elders disengage and youth lose interest in continuing it.
Revenue funnels to a few dominant players: hotels, tour resellers, and outside investors.
→ Result: Local entrepreneurs are sidelined, and money leaks out of the region.
No experience diversity means no seasonal strategy.
→ Result: Peak seasons are chaotic and profitable; the rest of the year brings near-zero income.
Talent leaves for lack of meaningful roles.
→ Result: Communities experience brain drain, and youth don't see tourism as a viable future.
Example: A community’s artisans stop selling locally because tourists only visit the main lodge gift shop, owned by a national chain.
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Who we work with
Experiential
travel companies
Destination management
companies
Communities and
destination-based organizations