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Shift 1 of 6

The experience is the advertisement.

FromDestinationsToExperiences

People don’t fall in love with a destination. They fall in love with a moment, and the most powerful way to share a moment is to show it. This shift lets every provider, from a rafting operator to a home cook, show the real thing, so the experience becomes its own advertisement.

Level 1 Concept4 min readLooking for a pilot partner

How a trip begins

Not with a map. Not with a list of hotels. A trip begins when you see something: a river cutting through a canyon, a family cooking a meal together, someone walking through a forest as the sun comes up, a small homestay looking out over a valley.

And you think: “I want to do that.”

Everything after it, where is that, how do I get there, who offers it, follows from that one feeling.

From a listing to a moment

From
  1. Destination
  2. search
  3. listing
  4. comparison
  5. booking
To
  1. Experience
  2. video
  3. desire
  4. provider
  5. booking

Picture a rafting operator near Rishikesh illustrative. Instead of saying “Book your rafting experience with us,” they share thirty seconds of the real thing. You arrive at the river. The gear goes on. The instructor explains the first rapid. The raft hits the water. Everyone screams. Everyone comes out laughing. And at the end: “This is what Saturday feels like in Rishikesh.”

A homestay doesn’t need to say it has beautiful views. It can show you waking up to them. A local cook doesn’t need to say “authentic Kumaoni food.” They can show you sitting in the kitchen while it’s being made. The video becomes the shop window. The provider becomes the storyteller.

The best advertisement for an experience is the experience itself.

How it would work

Every experience gets its own story. Each provider shares short videos of the real experience: not the business, the moment.

Every video leads to a person. Watch a video, tap once, and see who offers it, when it’s available and what it costs.

Discovery is organised around experiences. Browse by place, mood, season or time available (“a slow morning,” “something wild,” “food,” “with kids”), not only by hotel or operator.

Booking is one step away. From “I want to do that” to “booked” without leaving the moment.

Go deeper

What already exists

Travellers already discover this way. In a Google and Kantar survey of Indian travellers, 68 per cent said they use YouTube for travel inspiration, two in five use YouTube Shorts and, of those reliant on influencers, 59 per cent called them very influential[1]. Uttarakhand has what this kind of discovery needs: a village walk, a cooking session, a forest trail, a pottery workshop, a sunrise hike, a local festival, a river expedition. The state’s Tourism Policy 2023 speaks of authentic experiences that let visitors engage with local communities, and of a digital-first platform that accredits verified providers and enables bookings for experiences[2].

Scope. The survey was commissioned by Google, covered 1,000 online adults, and Google’s page doesn’t state the denominator for every percentage. We have found no evidence on whether short videos lead small providers to bookings. That is the pilot’s question.

Within the rules

Adventure experiences carry safety obligations. The Policy requires operators at anchor tourism sites to hold an Activity Operator Licence, and says the state will prepare safety guidelines for adventure activities and audit adventure providers twice a year[2]. So only registered and licensed providers are featured. Where a creator is paid or rewarded to feature an experience, the endorsement guidelines require the connection to be disclosed prominently[3].

Scope. We haven’t established which experiences need which licence, and haven’t read the Policy’s operational guidelines.

Getting it right

Help people create. A home cook shouldn’t need to be a filmmaker. Providers get simple training, a basic shooting kit, or access to local creators who can film for them.

Keep it real. One standard for every video: real guests, real moments, no scripts. The moment a video feels staged, it stops working.

Keep it trustworthy. Every provider is verified, so what you see is what you book.

Who it helps. Travellers find things they would never have known to search for, and know exactly what they’re booking because they’ve already seen it. Small providers could be found on the strength of what they offer: a two-room homestay, a village guide or a home cook as easily as a large resort, without an advertising budget. And the destination becomes known for thousands of experiences, not a handful of landmarks, spreading visitors and income across far more places.

What could go wrong

  • Videos that feel staged.Polished clips would lose the trust that makes the idea work, so the standard is real guests and real moments.
  • Attention without bookings.A video can be loved and still not lead to a booking, so the pilot follows people from watching to booking.
  • Safety hidden by enthusiasm.Adventure clips can make risk look light, so only licensed operators are featured and safety information appears with the experience.
  • A second job for small providers.If making videos feels like extra work, providers will stop, so the pilot measures effort as well as income.

How we’d test it

One pocket and fifteen experiences. Start in a single area, such as Maldevta near Dehradun, and help ten to fifteen providers make their first videos.

The test
First videos
What we would measure
Share them on existing video platforms and through QR codes at a few busy spots nearby. Measure how many people watch, save, ask and book, and whether providers earn enough to keep going. Carry what is learned to the next pocket.
What would end the idea
Few viewers go on to ask or book, or providers don’t earn enough to keep making videos.

Sources

  1. [1]Google, Win over India’s travellers in 2026, Think with Google (19 November 2025), reporting a Google and Kantar Travellers study (n=1,000 online adults aged 18+, 2025)Checked; Google’s own page, a Google-commissioned survey
  2. [2]Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, Uttarakhand Tourism Policy 2023, chapters 2, 8, 9 and 12Checked; the policy text as extracted from the PDF on the Board’s website
  3. [3]The Leaflet, Guidelines mandate social media influencers to make clear disclosures on endorsements (22 January 2023)Checked; a news report on guidelines issued on 20 January 2023

Spotted a source we missed or a rule we misread? Tell us what we got wrong.

Seeing an experience starts a trip. The next shift lets the trip keep changing once the traveller arrives.