It’s all about the experience

DIRECTOR'S VIEW: Newport Film Tour owner Tammy Fasano, front seat, shows guests scenes from movies filmed in Rhode Island while driving them around and stopping at locations used in the films. / PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY
DIRECTOR'S VIEW: Newport Film Tour owner Tammy Fasano, front seat, shows guests scenes from movies filmed in Rhode Island while driving them around and stopping at locations used in the films. / PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY

Heading to new destinations to learn about local culture is nothing new in travel. But in recent years, the rise of experiential travel has encouraged communities and business owners to immerse visitors in their experience.

Instead of visiting a restaurant, and eating lobster, tourists may want to head out on a lobster boat, and experience what it means to haul in a trap and pull a lobster from its wire cage.

Instead of watching movies that have a Rhode Island setting, visitors want to see these sites, and listen to a local resident tell them what it was like to be a part of the movie.

The trend, made more popular by millennials who are seeking out experiences and authentic moments in travel, has encouraged several Rhode Island tourism-focused groups to reposition old attractions for a new audience.

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“There are certainly things that are old that we’re making new again,” said Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport.

The organization recently sent two of its employees to a national conference in Minneapolis on experiential travel, held by the Experience Lab, which discussed how several communities and businesses, such as Mall of America, have created new experiences for visitors.

Experiential travel is being driven by millennials, the generation of Americans now aged 19-35, and the largest age demographic, according to an article by Forbes contributor Jeff Fromm. Travelers in this age group typically enjoy traveling with friends, or in groups, and care as much about the experiences as the physical accommodations they encounter.

The experiential traveler wants to “live like a local,” according to Kristen Adamo, vice president of marketing at the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau. That quest is “indicative of millennials, that quest for authenticity.”

Some of the experiences in Providence that are attracting new interest include neighborhood-specific cooking classes and events, things that showcase Federal Hill, College Hill, the West End and other parts of the city and environs.

Promoting that interest is something the CVB is working on now, she said. “Looking at Providence by neighborhoods, there are travelers who are hardcore foodies who might want to go to Broad Street or Wickenden Street,” she said.

Other attractions that are getting more interest in recent years include the Providence River Boat, which offers sightseeing tours on the Providence waterfront, and cooking classes offered by city restaurateurs.

In Newport, some of the attractions that have experiential appeal include walking tours of various neighborhoods, cooking classes that allow visitors to create their own cuisine, food tours that combine Newport history with foods, and the 1-year-old Fish’n Tales, a business that allows visitors to set off from Bowen’s Wharf with a lobster boat.

“Live the history” is the advice that Newport got, and is framing its attractions around, Smith said.

One of the newer businesses that is tapping into visitors’ interest in new experiences is the Newport Film Tour.

Owner Tammy Fasano uses a Mercedes 10-passenger van to shepherd guests around Newport, stopping at locations used in films such as “Amistad” and “The Great Gatsby.”

Each of her guests can view a small section of the film in the van, on its custom screen, before seeing the actual location.

Fasano said she learned quickly that tourists, as well as locals, love hearing the back stories of the films shot in Newport. It’s a unique perspective, she said.

“We show you Newport through the director’s view,” she added.

Fish’n Tales, the seasonal lobster-boat business started by Capt. Jeff O’Brien in 2015, has tapped into that trend.

He got the idea after hearing that a similar effort was paying off in Maine, where visitors wanted to better understand not only the crustacean, but the lifestyles of the fishermen who catch them.

“That is, going out and experiencing what it’s like to be a lobsterman,” said O’Brien. “Part of it is hands-on. Part of it is a fun boat ride.”

He opened the boat for trips last year, and after a slow build the business took off in 2016. The boat was full seven days a week this past summer, O’Brien said, with as many as 25-30 people aboard at one time.

He thought it would appeal to children and their parents, but he also found that older travelers were interested in the life of lobsters. The season, now ended, convinced him that an experience as authentically New England as a lobster trip is something tourists will seek out.

His other business, which sells by-the-head tickets on party fishing boats, is also classically New England, and attracts plenty of tourists who want to experience the ocean.

“People just love to fish,” he said. •

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