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Tracing Origins

Interesting reading about ancestry tourism. All parties involved in the trend are making a buck thanks people craving to feel rooted to some place and something real

So-called heritage tourism has grown into its own travel category, like skiing and whale watching. In 2019, an Airbnb survey found that the share of people traveling to “trace their roots” worldwide had increased by 500 percent since 2014; the company announced that it was teaming up with 23andMe, the DNA-testing service, to meet this demand, offering trips to clients’ ancestral homelands. Ancestry, the company behind the family-search website, has partnered with a travel agency. The governments of Germany and Scotland have websites devoted to heritage tourism. Conde Nast Traveller is all over this trend. In Dublin, the Shelbourne Hotel’s “genealogy butler” can research your Irish side, if you so please. 

Ancestry and 23andMe have built a nice product portfolios all around the universal question of "Whom Am I". So many ways to answer that and just as many ways to monetize. Bring in interested partners to the party and the size of the pie only grows bigger. It got me thinking about common themes that tie people's travel behavior and some of the more universal ones. Coming home for the holidays wherever home might be and whatever the holiday of note. Going on pilgrimages. Following in the path of - this can be quite versatile. The path of history, a modern icon, a place popularized by a fictional literary hero, a real movie hero and so on. 

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