Microadventures the greatest travel trend of 2022

Travellers are finding unique ways to engage with nature locally for smaller, shorter excursions, and some studies indicate that these microadventures are as impactful on mental and emotional health as traditional getaways.

By Romanita Oprea

Anca Muraru, DigitalNomadsRomania.com and OnToRemote.com

Astudy by the Greater Good Science Centre at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco found that participants who embarked on 15-minute walks each week “reported greater joy” and even smiled more than those in the control group. The results, which are part of a larger study, indicate that taking a long trip isn’t necessary to inspire awe: short, simple excursions still have a positive effect on our mental health.

Listed among Wunderman Thompsons’ 100 Trends for 2022, French travel brand Chilowé offers microadventures exclusively, encouraging travellers to travel locally and in small groups. The company’s concept emphasises the travel possibilities that are close to home for French natives, offering sustainable and affordable travel options.

In the United Kingdom, a one-night adventure company offers mini-stays in remote locations. The short trips designed by Much Better Adventures are for people with busy lifestyles and a thirst for adventure. Hotel and resort chain Best Western is promoting microadventures in the United Kingdom, advertising unique getaways that last a maximum of 48 hours.

Where there is adventure, there is gear for explorers. US clothing brand M22 has expanded its lifestyle range to develop experiences for adventurous locals near Lake Michigan. The brand’s microadventures are curated to help travellers escape everyday life and personalised to fit any mood. From surfing and kayaking to hiking and nature walks, COO Nick Madrick wants the destination’s branded escapades to “get people outside in the natural environment to reconnect with nature and experience the local community,” as he told Travel and Leisure.

Therefore, according to the Wunderman Thompsons study, when extreme adventure and traditional travel aren’t possible, microadventures are proving to be popular, satisfying swaps for outdoor escapes. Brands are thus seeking ways to introduce this travel habit to consumers looking to satisfy their wanderlust.

A TREND THAT’S HERE TO STAY

The microadventures trend doesn’t sound that new to some, as it was predicted as far back as 2017, in trend reports from the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and travel industry website Skift, both listing microadventures as trends to watch, as tours and activities become the mainstay of many travellers’ holidays. The term “microadventures” was introduced by British adventurer and author Alastair Humphreys, who described them as “small and achievable, for normal people with real lives.” The main point is that adventures don’t have to be massive logistical and financial undertakings. Microadventures can happen on a weeknight and still give you all the benefits of shaking up your routine, getting fresh air, and moving your body. “I didn’t want microadventures to be a diluted form of adventure. I wanted them to be concentrated, distilled, like a shot of espresso,” Humphreys said.

According to adventure.com, it appears that as hectic lives take hold, busy holidaymakers are choosing to factor in shorter but still-exciting experiences into their holidays or take short breaks when a longer trip eludes

Aurel Creanga, Best Business Travel Romania

them. Whether it’s a high-altitude hike or a street food tour, people are looking to add a more active element to their travels.

The motivations behind this trend can be both economic and ethical (e.g., given the current climate situation, taking a plane for quick hop around the world is often seen in a negative light). “In Sweden, we've seen the development of flygskam, the shame associated with taking a plane trip. The other important difference with micro-adventures is their timing. They can be described as integrating tourism into daily life. The goal is to add leisure and vacation time into one's daily schedule and thereby add a touch of marvel to life. Micro-adventurers are people who want to optimise their day by making the most of what are generally very busy schedules. This approach aims to rid a schedule of downtime or uninteresting time slots and instead fill them with significant activities,” said Helene Michel for Grenoble Ecole de Management. The desire to be high performing at all levels, including daily schedules, is a new trait of the emerging dominating class, known as the “aspirational class.”

“On the one hand I would say that this phenomenon is due to the limited free time, intense work, and strained budgets. On the other hand, I think that during these uncertain times, people are often not very comfortable with taking long holidays. I've had many cases in the last two years when tourists have had to interrupt their trips and go back home because one of their family members got sick. Many people now prefer to break a one-week vacation into two shorter holidays, out of a desire for diversity and for more opportunities to disconnect from their daily routines. It is very handy to get in the car, train or on a plane and go on a weekend getaway to relax,” says Aurel Creanga, travel corporate lead & MICE Storyteller Associate at Best Business Travel Romania. Moreover, he encourages people to make a habit out of leaving town at least once every two or three months, if not once a month, to reconnect with themselves and with nature and have new experiences.

According to Sorin Rusi, the owner of Airlines Travel, people have started to travel more in recent years. They tend to plan a big yearly vacation—circuit or stays—but also several city breaks, as travel is no longer considered a luxury, but a necessity. “The pandemic has profoundly affected tourism

BEST PLACES TO VISIT FOR A MICROADVENTURE IN 2022

“Microadventures should be pretty close to your home, so of course it depends on where you live. For someone who’s based in Bucharest, I would suggest Tara Fagarasului, the lesser known Brancoveanu-style residences in south Romania or Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria” – Cezar Dumitru, aka Imperator Travel

“The best place to visit is the one you dream of. I think local tourism will continue to grow in 2022, and people will be more inclined to visit remote locations during the weekends. Depending on travel regulations and the availability of destinations, I guess emblematic European destinations will regain their popularity very soon. My feeling is that Nordic countries will be among the top destinations for microadventures this year, in addition to local tourism.” – Aurel Creanga, travel corporate lead & MICE Storyteller Associate at Best Business Travel Romania

“For 2022, I recommend city breaks in lesser-known European destinations. For example, Rijeka in Croatia or Wroclaw in Poland are both spectacular destinations worth discovering.” – Sorin Rusi, owner of Airlines Travel

due to various travel restrictions. The decline hit 70 percent in 2020 and 50 percent in 2021. But in 2022, the drop will only be around 10 or 15 percent compared to 2019.” At the same time, Rusi noted that the pandemic has also led to changes in tourists’ behaviour. “They have become more careful with their chosen destinations, they pay more attention to travel insurance, and they choose more flexible packages. People prefer shorter trips because they want to travel several times a year. Some still choose stays and 5-7-10-day tours, but many others opt for small getaways of two or three days,” the Airlines Travel representative adds.

Airlines, cruise companies, hotels, and local industries that depend on incoming tourism were severely hit in 2020. The World Tourism Association stated that the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 led to 1.1 billion fewer international tourist arrivals—a way bigger figure than those associated with the 2003 SARS epidemic (-2 million) or 2008 financial crisis (-37 million). The industry saw a minor recovery in 2021 and it is expected to grow

Sorin Dutoiu, YOLO Media & Travel for Senses

significantly in 2022 (by 30-70 percent), and fully recover by 2024. In the past two years, despite restrictions, many people managed to find solutions and travel to their desired destinations as long as they were available. “Before the pandemic, most tourists would book their flights and accommodation online. Now, due to the uncertainty generated by the ever-changing conditions regarding covid-19, people have stated to approach travel agencies more in order to be guaranteed support for any inconvenience. The number of city breaks decreased, while family trips or romantic vacations in the most exotic spots (like the Maldives) saw an interesting growth. In my opinion, luxury tourism was the least affected by the pandemic,” explains Sorin Dutoiu, managing partner at YOLO Media & Travel for Senses, who added that travellers with high incomes continued to spend their vacations in exotic destinations. While domestic travel saw significant growth over the past two years, 2022 is expected to be the year of crossing things off the bucket list for most tourists. “Now, with fewer or no restrictions in place, it is time for travellers to have their best trips ever—no matter the budget. And to be totally sincere, we all need this. We have spent two years in anxiety, uncertainty, and frustration, and we all deserve to live our lives to the fullest and simply be happy,” the Travel for Senses managing partner adds.

Aurel Creanga recalls talking to clients of his who were impatient to go on holiday and requested information about Greece and Bulgaria, which were among the first countries that opened their borders during that summer. They all wanted to avoid planes and drive their own car to their destination, and they chose private villas in remote areas, surrounded by nature, away from tourist hotspots. “Clients who weren’t looking to leave the country had similar requests: remote, nature-filled locations that would still be close to home. I realised that this would soon become a trend and that tourist behaviour was changing. Even though the total number of tourists has dropped in the last two years, prices have risen quite significantly. The industry is trying to recover from past losses and it is taking advantage of people's growing desire to travel. As a result, people have had to look for alternatives because the need of a holiday is a necessity, not a luxury, so many have turned to local tourism, discovering rural areas and microadventures,” Aurel Creanga notes.

In turn, Cezar Dumitru, known as a blogger and influencer at Imperator Travel, believes that if the pandemic eases in 2022 as some experts predict, the industry’s recovery will happen over the next 1-2 years, with a sharp increase. “There are lots of people who haven’t been travelling recently, and they just can’t wait to hit the road. In Romania, we say ‘Pauzele lungi si dese, cheia marilor succese. Dar si pauzele scurte ne-au adus victorii multe.’ (‘long and frequent breaks are the key to success; but short breaks are also pretty awesome”). Travel is a way to relax and de-stress, and sometimes even a one-day trip can lift your mood and make you feel energised.”

“In terms of the digital nomad community, I’ve seen a huge increase in the number of people interested in adopting a lifestyle that offers the flexibility to travel and work at the same time. Less than a decade ago, there were just a few dozen websites and groups dedicated to this topic. In the past few years, that figure has increased exponentially, and since the pandemic hit, I’ve seen people who otherwise may have never thought of long-term travel looking into this alternative. At the same time, I’ve seen nomads who had been travelling for years deciding to slow down and rethink their travel habits based on their current lifestyles,” says Anca Muraru, founder of DigitalNomadsRomania.com and OnToRemote.com. She adds that it seems we are all expanding our perspectives and moving away from the conventional, towards something that suits each of us individually. Whether it is a nomadic lifestyle or the traditional yearly holiday, we are more keen to explore alternatives and mix them up in a way that best matches our current needs.

Retail market striving to keep up with major shifts in consumer behaviour & expectations

The growth of e-commerce will continue in 2022, following two years of boosted expansion, and customers will enjoy faster delivery and better services. At the same time, the Deposit Return System (DRS) is seen as Romania’s biggest and most important sustainability project of the past 30 years, and not just from an investment perspective. These were the key conclusions of Business Review’s re:Focus on E-commerce, Retail & Logistics event, which brought together leading retailers, omnichannel innovators, as well as major players in supply chains & logistics, to share valuable insights and best practices and discuss this year’s challenges and opportunities.

By Anda Sebesi & Aurel Constantin

PANEL 1: CHANGES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

The pandemic-related restrictions on in-store shopping generated rather drastic changes in consumer behaviour. Buying clothes and shoes online was not something most shoppers were used to doing, but now they don’t think twice about it. Efforts made by retailers and delivery companies to ease the buying process have also helped a lot. And the results of these measures came in 2021, when companies like Answear doubled their sales compared to 2020, as we learned from Country Manager Raluca Radu during the event.

What is clear is that customers who buy online want faster delivery, easier ways to pay, and more ways to interact with shops. Their desire to improve their quality of life forces retailers to provide better and better services and expand the range of goods they offer. eMAG did this by increasing the number of shops on its Marketplace, a segment that has grown significantly in the last two years, now covering 60 percent of all eMAG sales. The benefits of the Marketplace go both ways: while customers have access to a wide range of products from various industries, sellers can easily open a sales channel and access a 4.5 million customer base.

Stejara Pircan, Senior VP at eMAG, announced that the company was investing in the International Partnership Network, which will provide connections to foreign markets like France and Germany.

One problem that everyone at the event mentioned was inflation, which is already having a big impact on costs. Before the pandemic started the market was in great shape, with low prices and high demand, but today, companies are being forced to increase prices for products and services. Even IKEA, who is famous for keeping its prices low and stable, announced that would have to increase them by 20 to 30 percent.

For couriers, the impact of inflation can be counterbalanced by more sales. A higher number of orders means more deliveries, leading to better prices for those deliveries. At the same time, allowing customers to pick up packages from a delivery point is a great way to reduce delivery times and give customers more flexibility. But the industry still needs a lot of investment in order to cover the expansion of the customer base. Adrian Mihai, the CEO of Fan Courier, says that the investment in a new warehouse can go up to EUR 10 million and that it results in a 30-minute reduction of the delivery time in that region. While that may not seem like a significant improvement in delivery time, those minutes are very important for couriers. Fan Courier alone delivers around 24,000 packages every day, and a package normally goes through the hands of seven people before it reaches the customer.

As for payments, allowing the customer to pay by card on delivery has helped largely eliminate cash from transactions. Romanian customers may still be sceptical about online transactions, meaning that they don’t want to pay before they see the product, but thanks to solutions like SoftPOS, they no longer need cash in those situations. Since the pandemic broke out, the change in customer behaviour has meant withdrawing less cash from ATMs and more often using online payment solutions. That’s why ATMs today also have other functions, such as receiving cash from customers, paying credit installments or paying bills.

PANEL 2: RETAIL PARKS AND REGIONAL MALLS

There is still plenty of room for growth on the e-commerce market. While online shops are looking to expand their offering, introducing new products lines like Home & Deco and financial solutions like ”buy now, pay later,” supermarkets are receiving more orders for everyday products, which means they must ensure that they have the capacity to cover these new orders.

But since the only constant on the market is change, companies must learn to be flexible, if they haven’t already. Omnichannel marketing means a close relationship between retail shops and logistics-delivery players. Today, online shopping is at 9 percent of total shopping, whereas it accounted for only 5-6 percent in 2019, but there’s still a lot of growth ahead, especially since Romania is now on the regional hub map alongside the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland.

Omnichannel means that retailers must be everywhere the customer is: online, in malls, in shopping centres, etc. And all these changes are forcing offline shops to become more modern and provide more ways of Jarosław Sliwa, CEO at Cargus “Market competition brings great benefits to customers. The intense competition between players on the courier market leads to services getting better and better.”

Raluca Radu, Country Manager at Answear Romania “We are expecting e-commerce to continue growing in 2022. Last year our sales doubled compared to 2020 and this trend will continue this year, too.”

Lucian Baltaru, CEO at Sameday “We are operating in Romania and Hungary. There are of course some challenges with cross-border deliveries, but we’ve learned to manage them quite well.”

Stejara Pircan, Senior VP at eMAG “Last year we celebrated the 10 year anniversary of our Marketplace platform. The business grew significantly in the last two years: it now accounts for 60 percent of all eMAG sales.”

Adrian Mihai, CEO at FAN Courier “Couriers and customers have grown quite close, especially when we’re talking about customers who make frequent orders. Some couriers even know what kind of coffee customers like.”

Cristi Movila, Eastern Europe GM & EMEA SVP at VTEX “The speed at which the market has grown has not been matched by the development of education in the industry. It is difficult to find specialists to cover open job vacancies.”

Viorel Vasile, Cards Unit Director at Alpha Bank “In terms of payment behaviour, online has been the star in recent years. Starting with February 2020, we’ve seen a major shift from traditional to online transactions.”

Georgiana Iancu, Partner & Leader of the Indirect Tax Department at EY Romania “Customer centricity is the core driver of all retail companies’ strategies. Sustainability is ranking higher among consumer interests, which puts a lot more pressure on sellers.”

Geanina Ungureanu, Senior Asset & Leasing Retail Manager at IMMOFINANZ “Every retailer now has at least some online activity, but they still need a physical space to present their products. Retail parks have proven to be a safe bet for developers.”

Catalin Pozdarie, CEO at Hervis “We need to find the best communication channels to reach young customers, as they will be our target audience in the coming years.” communication with their customers. For companies like Hervis Romania, it is important for communication channels to reach future customers, since young people are the store’s main target.

Industry trends point to two concepts being on the rise: retail parks and regional malls. These represent mixed-projects in the real estate industry, and they are designed to give customers everything they want. They are places where families can shop, but also enjoy some entertainment, and at the same time they need to be close to home or work. “Coffee shops are now turning into remote offices, while food courts are being used as libraries,” said Sebastian Mahu, Head of Asset Management at Iulius.

Focusing on the customer also means upgrading old industrial and shopping places to today’s standards. The pandemic has been good for those who decided to start renovation projects, so shopping areas are now even friendlier in terms of customer experience. It all gets combined with online shopping, but there’s still a need for a showroom, where customers can touch and feel the products they’re interested in. The logistics industry is not only modernising its spaces, using automated robots and machines, but also expanding, since every EUR 1 billion of new sales requires about 100,000 square metres of warehouses.

What’s more, a number of manufacturers are considering moving production facilities that are now in Asia back to Europe. The delays in shipments, rising costs, and various shortages (such as the semiconductor crisis) are forcing companies to look for closer-tohome spaces to produce their goods. This situation creates opportunities in the entire Central and Eastern Europe region, including in Romania.

Trade routes are important for big retailers in terms of commercial spaces. Auchan, for example, has plans to open 61 proximity shops in the next five years, most of them in towns located on the route between Constanta and Hungary, as this route will become more important for transportation in the coming years.

Asked about the workforce and the issues they face in hiring qualified employees, all speakers at the event said that it was important for education projects that were started before 2020 to continue. Even if a company has a solid team today, it will certainly need more specialists in the future, and with so many new jobs being created by digitalization, the education process must never stop.

PANEL 3: DRS: ROMANIA’S MOST IMPORTANT SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT TO DATE

The Deposit Return System (DRS) is seen as Romania’s biggest and most important sustainability project of the past 30 years, and not just from an investment perspective. Educating the public and raising awareness of this issue will be paramount in the near future, in order to create a fair and functional system. “DRS could change Romania in terms of how we treat our packaging and the waste that results from it. This project has the potential to create a functional circular economy in our country,” said Ionut Georgescu, Founder & CEO at FEPRA, during the third panel of the re:Focus on E-commerce, Retail & Logistics conference.

However, from a logistics perspective, the DRS seems like a herculean task, considering how many stakeholders have to be involved to create a working system. According to Julia Leferman, General Manager at the Brewers of Romania Association, the DRS could be biggest environmental project in Romania, and making it functional will require lots of energy and resources. “By the end of 2025, many changes will have to occur across the entire chain, starting from producers, because it all starts with them.”

Producer responsibility is crucial in implementing a system that doesn’t just tick off some recycling quotas on paper, but actually creates new packaging out of collected waste and closes the circle for that material.

“The DRS has to do with the entire circuit of the used package. The producer is the starting point, but we also need functional collection facilities for retailers. It’s very important to create convenient mechanisms for consumers, to make the system as easy as possible. This means we need to create a nation-wide system that will enable consumers to recover the deposit wherever they can, and that will create an entire logistics network for the recovery of the used packaging consumers bring to collection centers, which will end up at recycling centres,” Leferman explained.

In Romania, beverage producers work with around 120 distributors to move their products across the supply chain and reach final consumers. Those distributors use around 3,500 vehicles, which often come back empty. Utilising those empty vehicles might be one solution to solve the DRS logistics riddle, Ionut Georgescu suggested.

The DRS will serve a very specific market, that of beverage producers, but it will not solve all of our problems; it will only streamline one of several collection pillars,” said Alice Nichita, President of the National Soft Drinks Association (ANBR).

In Romania, around 7,000-10,000 retail units account for nearly 35 percent of national consumption. In this context, how do retailers view the Deposit Return System—as a burden or a relief? Emanuel Parvulescu, Head of Environment at Cora, tried to answer this question. “It’s definitely an advantage for us, it’s a facility offered to our end-consumer. The system will become the biggest private investment in waste management in Romania. To become operational, it needs to have the ability to efficiently collect large quantities of packaging waste from consumers, and this will benefit the entire chain: from citizens to manufacturers, from retailers to state authorities.”

Romanian authorities should clearly state the fundamental principles of the DRS, but those principles should be decided upon thourgh consultation with all stakeholders. “Apart from challenges related to investments and logistics, there are also legislative aspects to clarify. Each day we run into new obstacles that must be addressed,” said Cosmin Teodoru, a representative of the Romanian Environment, Waters, and Forests Ministry.

“As a producer, considering the specific context of our country, I believe it will be very difficult to achieve the planned 65 percent collection rate. We are trying to contribute through our waste collection reverse vending machines, which are fully automated and high performing. In Brasov, for example, we are collecting nearly 1 million packages now, and citizens are getting used to the system and understanding that it benefits everyone,” says Bogdan Purcherea, Managing Director at Envipco Holding. Tiberiu Teleanu, Expansion & Asset Management Director at Auchan Retail Romania “Online shopping and real estate go hand in hand, and they will continue to do so in the future. It is important for us to have as many contact points as possible with the client.”

Sebastian Mahu, Head of Asset Management at IULIUS “Romania has relatively modern retail spaces, with most of its retail stock having been built after 2000, and the supermarket is no longer the main anchor.”

Tudor Iuga, Senior Consultant Industrial & Logistics Services at CBRE Romania “Romania’s presence is growing on the map of regional hubs. We are competing with markets like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.”

Cristiana Fernbach, Partner at KPMG Legal “E-commerce has grown exponentially over the past two years, but we must also acknowledge the fact that it raises new challenges.”

Cosmin Teodoru, General Director at the Environment, Water and Forests Ministry “Some of the legal responsibility for DRS stays with the company’s shareholders, and it is separate from the responsibility of the producer.” Ionut Georgescu, Founder and CEO at FEPRA “Returnable and collectable packaging represents 30 percent of the total packaging on the market, which represents 10 percent of the total waste being collected.”

Julia Leferman, General Manager at the Brewers of Romania Association “8 out of 10 Romanians say they are willing to return product packaging. There is a big difference between intention and action, but we can do things to incentivise that action.”

Alice Nichita, President of the National Soft Drinks Association “In order to be compliant with the state scheme for deposit and return system, we’ve had to set up two new associations, which should be operational by May or June.”

Bogdan Purcherea, Managing Director at Envipco Holding “When it comes to returning packaging, we should start with the things that are known to work, some of which are easy to implement: vouchers would be a good example.”

Emanuel Parvulescu, Head of Environment at Cora “We will soon propose a new model for DRS that will work for everyone involved and meet the standards imposed by legislation.”