At the intersection of creativity, artifice and travel

My spell-checker recognizes “Disneyfied” as a word.

Its usage is typically pejorative, used to describe a place where human intervention has pushed a destination into the sphere of artifice. Interestingly, Disney World and Disneyland get a pass in this regard because it doesn’t pretend to be anything but a fully imagined, man-made creation.

Or, in its own terminology, “magical.”

But in the vast gulf between Disneyland and a destination that hasn’t yet had to consider installing a timed entrance system — Pitcairn Island, for instance — are hundreds of thousands of places that, to the extent that they are desirable, accessible and affordable, are also travel products.

The travel industry, through its marketing, transportation and operational systems, can enhance desirability, improve accessibility and bring down costs. And beyond that, industry players choose how to present a destination. As a result, how that travel product is perceived by travelers has given rise to “Disneyfied” as a negative adjective and “authentic” as its attractive opposite.

The majority of vacations sold by leisure travel advisors falls somewhere in between.

What has me thinking about all of this is a conversation I recently had with Jimmy Carroll, co-founder of Pelorus. Pelorus sees the world as a platform for creative travel experiences.

For example, a client’s family wanted to go to northern Vancouver Island. They were going to an area where it’s possible to enjoy whale-watching, hear wolves howl in the night and see bears catch and eat salmon.

With such an abundance of impressive, natural attractions, how could it be — in fact, should it be — augmented? As Carroll noted when relating the story to me, “It is a phenomenal place on its own.”

After speaking with the client in-depth and thinking the experience through, Carroll and his team considered that watching a grizzly while it fishes is done at some distance. Binoculars can bring the action closer, but there are elements related to the human senses that, if added, would give a fuller understanding of what’s being observed.

One missing element is sound. What sound does the bear make when smacking a salmon out of the water, catching it in its mouth and crunching down?

Pelorus hired an IMAX sound technician to go to the area in advance of the trip and, with a microphone on a boom extended above a bear’s head, recorded it. While in the area, he also put microphones in the ocean to record whales and recorded glaciers crack and calve. He also captured wolves howling at close range.

Before going bear-watching, the family listened to the sound of bears fishing through high-quality headphones, then got into kayaks and paddled down the coast. “As they watched the bears, they knew what it would be like to be right next to the bear,” Carroll said.

To get to the level of operational detail that such a trip might entail, Carroll leans on his experiences in the British military and his personal adventures that have required great attention to detail. During the pandemic, for instance, he joined a small team that rowed across the Atlantic Ocean.

Pelorus has also put together treasure hunts and “Amazing Race”–style trips. Last year, their team of 37 assembled “just shy of 150 trips,” 70% of them related to general travel experiences and 30% related to yachting specifically. “With a yacht broker, you may get a pre- or post-yacht trip experience. But we design an entire experience around time on the yacht itself.”

Average cost for a Pelorus trip: $140,000.

His travel advisor business is growing, he said, and he has observed that those he works with in the trade fit a certain profile. “They aren’t just business people,” he said. “They view their work as craft.”

So, is Pelorus artifice or authentic? Did it Disneyfy Vancouver Island?

Carroll said he believes that what makes their trips authentic is that all begin with a deep and detailed understanding of what a client wants.

“No matter what the trip is, we begin by finding out what the client’s intent is. What do they want to achieve? If, for instance, it’s to fully understand nature in northern Vancouver Island, we add a dimension that helps them to understand it in a deeper way than they could on their own.”

In that example, I agree that, although there was human intermediation in a wild natural area, the intervention conceivably helped the visitors interpret their experience at a more profound level.

And what if, instead, Pelorus had asked AI to create the sound of a grizzly bear fishing and played that for the family, fully disclosing its artificial nature? It may have brought the price tag down, but why a trip is ultimately satisfying is complex, and I suspect that the family was more satisfied at the end of the trip by knowing the extent of effort and creativity that went into making it a unique, authentic experience — just for them.