How experiential tourism meets rising traveler demand
Key points:
- • Hotels and destinations are competing through intentional, experience-led travel.
- • Meeting organizers are moving beyond standard conference formats.
- • Local dining, culture, and attractions strengthen destination appeal.
August 2026 — Hotel and destination leaders across the South are rebuilding their businesses around what guests do outside the room, with a global tours-and-attractions market that reached roughly $360 billion last year.
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From Houston to Myrtle Beach to Durham, general managers and tourism directors see experiential tourism, from what a traveler experiences in, around, and beyond the hotel, determining whether that traveler comes back, and increasingly, whether they book at all.
Travel gets intentional
Juan Laginia, general manager of the InterContinental Houston, said the shift now defines leisure and business travel alike.
“Travelers are prioritizing personalization, value, and experiential travel, and that last piece is the trend with the most momentum,” said Laginia in an interview with Invest: Houston. “It is no longer just about going to Houston, New York, Los Angeles, or Miami. It is about what you will experience while you are there.” Guests increasingly expect the hotel to help shape that experience.
Smaller destinations in the region are adopting the same language. Tracy Rohrbacher, executive director of Visit Pearland, said the city’s strategy now runs through intention rather than inventory. “A major part of our ongoing strategy is to position Pearland as a place to visit with intention,” Rohrbacher said.
Visitor spending contributed $163 million to the Pearland economy in 2024, and the city logged a record $1.9 million in hotel tax revenue the same year.
At Marriott Marquis Houston, the bar is set high on unique experiences. “People don’t want their expectations to be met; they want their expectations to be exceeded,” general manager Nour Laasri said in an interview with Invest: Houston.
Coastal markets are seeing the same intention-driven demand translate directly into rankings. Stuart Butler, president of Visit Myrtle Beach, said the destination’s data and its dining scene are now reinforcing each other. “TripAdvisor named Myrtle Beach the No. 1 searched destination for summer 2026 in the country for domestic travel, as well as No. 1 for the Fourth of July,” Butler said in an interview with Invest: South Carolina. “That gave us a lot of pride.”
Butler shared that the destination was also named the No. 5 best small city in America by Resonance Consultancy’s 100 Best Cities list, and that its culinary scene is climbing to match. “In the last 12 months, we received our first Michelin-recognized restaurant, our first James Beard finalist restaurant, and a local restaurant, Anto’s Pizza, won the World Cup of Pizza in Italy for a certain type of pizza,” Butler said. “We can now claim we have the best pizza in the world in that category.”
Density is part of what separates Myrtle Beach from larger competitors. “Our county has about 400,000 people, and the city of Myrtle Beach itself has about 36,000 people, but we have 2,000 restaurants to choose from,” Butler said. “That is more per capita than Paris. We have thousands of attractions, 60 miles of beautiful beaches, world-class live music, and more than 20,000 live music performances.”
The Myrtle Beach area drew $13.3 billion in direct visitor spending in 2025, slightly up from 2024, for a total economic impact of more than $26 billion, according to Tourism Works for the Grand Strand.
Meetings shed the template
That same recalibration is reshaping meetings and conventions. According to Rebecca Bolton, organizers are actively moving away from the standard conference format. “More and more, people are looking for something beyond a standard conference format,” Bolton, general manager of the Durham Convention Center, said in an interview with Invest: Raleigh-Durham. “Attendees want an experience, not just a meeting, and organizers are responding to that demand.” Durham’s walkable downtown and distinctive venues let organizers plug into a destination that already offers character and energy, instead of manufacturing an experience inside a blank box.
For Don Ball, general manager of the JB Duke Hotel, the same expectation now applies inside the meeting itself. “Meetings today need to feel complete,” Ball said. “Content matters, but success increasingly depends on experiences that keep attendees engaged and motivated.” Ball said the days of sitting in one room all day are over. “People want meetings that feel human and memorable,” he said in an interview with Invest: Raleigh-Durham.
The preference for in-person is measurable and rising as the COVID-19 pandemic moves further into the rearview mirror. Eighty-two percent of attendees preferred in-person events, according to 2026 business event industry data.
Quality over quantity
Chris Boleman, president and CEO of RodeoHouston, said the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s growth comes from depth of experience rather than ticket count alone. “It’s much more about the quality experience of our customers than it is the quantity,” Boleman said to Invest: Houston. “Someone may come for an artist, but once they get here and see everything happening across the grounds, from livestock shows to shopping, AgVenture, Fun on the Farm, and the Carnival, they realize it is much bigger than one concert.”
RodeoHouston drew 2.6 million attendees in 2026 and continues to be a major driver for local businesses.
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