Understanding Multicultural Travel
Through Stories.

The Challenge

Destinations were facing a strategic question: should they develop individual campaigns for underrepresented audiences, or an integrated multicultural campaign? The answer depended on where the brand was today, its relationships with those communities, and the trust it had earned.

Future of Travel was designed to gain a coast-to-coast understanding of the values, needs and attitudes of diverse, multicultural and underrepresented travelers. The work went beyond measuring travel intent and behavior to explore the experiences, emotions and cultural influences behind their decisions.

The Approach

Sponsored by Virginia is for Lovers, Miles Partnership and Richmond Region Tourism, Future of Travel 2023 brought Share More Stories together with Esra Calvert Consulting, JMI and The Culturist Group. The partnership combined travel research and strategic thinking with SEEQ’s story-based, AI-powered approach.

Participants submitted their travel stories online in response to a prompt about a recent, memorable travel experience, and answered questions about themselves, their travel experiences and their expectations. The story-based approach allowed participants to share deeply emotional experiences, rich in detail and feeling.

SEEQ’s analytics provided summaries and themes of the experiences, as well as similarities and differences among them. These perspectives were analyzed through a process that combined machine learning with human storytelling, helping the team understand the emotional and experience drivers for travelers through an inclusive and intersectional lens.

What We Learned

Ultimately, the Future of Travel is about belonging. The study provided a framework for understanding how destinations and brands can build trust and meet the expectations of multicultural travelers.

• Building Trust Through Transparency. Generating, communicating and stewarding trust helps destinations and brands create the conditions for belonging.
• Cultural Joy as an Inspiration Highway. Alongside challenges and barriers, travelers’ stories revealed moments of joy that can be overlooked or overly simplified without a nuanced understanding.
• The Importance of Trusted Voices. Trusted voices have increased importance in decision-making; understanding those relationships helps brands connect more authentically.
• Nuance and Balance Across Diverse Groups. Shared emotional needs create opportunities for connection, while recognizing differences remains critical to an authentic understanding of travelers across multiple identities.

From Insight to Action

The team shared findings at TTRA, ESTO, the Power of Partnership Summit and VA-1, Virginia’s annual tourism conference. The first-edition industry report launched in January 2024, followed by public webinars and facilitated workshops that helped destinations work through the implications for their own brands, visitor experiences and messaging.

At VA-1, participants reflected on the findings and developed action plans around enhancing the travel experience; safety, accessibility and inclusivity; sustainability and cultural promotion; and engaging with travelers for continuous improvement. A subsequent Virginia Tourism Corporation partner webinar explored practical applications for destinations and attractions throughout Virginia.

The work also led to a messaging workshop with Visit Orange Virginia and a webinar and workshops with Travel Oregon, including the 2025 Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism. These sessions helped industry partners explore their visitor and guest experience, assess current messaging, and identify practical steps to engage multicultural travelers.

Future of Travel continued in 2025 as a Visit California-led initiative.