New Age Tourism: Challenges and Positioning in a Changing Society

Abstract

New Age tourism is traditionally situated within the scope of alternative tourism and, as such, it is considered to attract a small portion of tourism demand. However, with the proliferation of New Age lifestyles in Western societies, New Age-themed products and services are becoming more of a regular norm in tourism offerings, causing blending and conflicting practices. Thus, this article reviews the literature on the New Age tourism and explores prominent current tourism offerings in order to revisit the place of the phenomenon on the tourism market. Blending of practices, conflicting realities, and vagueness of the phenomenon for marketing purposes are stressed as major challenges for new positioning of New Age tourism. A two-segment consumer case scenarios and three strategies for tourism providers (sticking to the status quo, the adaptation of New Aged-themed products and services, and broad tourism recognition of New Age tourism) are offered and discussed as conflict resolution recommendations.