After coming back from a trip or vacation, what are the first impressions that your family, friends, or colleagues will hear about?

Of course, the events, experiences, and people that brought about strong feelings in you. Whether positive or not, these are what forms our initial impressions.

If you went on a business trip, professional development and the quality of education, right information, and valuable contacts are the main impressions that we take away.

Leaving this aside, what makes the strongest impression on most people is the experience of the destination – through culture, art, history, cuisine, way of life, and people. Please reread the aforesaid carefully. Every single aspect counts.

If any of these things is experienced as unique, distinct, and specific to a destination, our impressions are more profound and stay longer with us. On the other hand, the combination of all these components creates the final impression and the so-called vibes we get from a destination or location.

Beautiful or interesting architecture or magnificent parks are just some of the highlights. More or less, we’ve all seen such things before. Team building activities include more than getting employees together to spend two hours playing fun games. The chances are that most of them already experienced something similar. What separates one tourist attraction or activity from another is their cultural authenticity, background story, people who are involved, hosts, accidental passers-by… flavors and smells… overall vibes and setting.

When organizing events, team building activities, tours, or special events, it would be wise to take into account the significance of local culture, history and tradition, as well as local foodstuffs and dishes that are unique to a specific location. What better starting point is there for creating authentic experiences?

Discover many great ideas and be inspired by local in this issue of the SEEbtm magazine.

More often than not, the best things are right under our noses, at arm’s reach. Shifting our perspective is all it takes.

Miona Milic,
Editor-in-Chief