Educational Hotels
I see the future of travel for the discerning traveler as moving more into the educational travel space. Imagine hotels with professors-in-residence, curated happy hour discussions on current issues and ethical debates, in-room learning opportunities through iPads or touch screens linking to unique learning tours, nightly guest lectures, hands-on workshops, a co-working space where local innovators and thought-leaders mix with traveling intellectuals, and communal eating areas where local produce fuels the system. I believe these types of spaces will drive collaboration and be the basis of future networks and businesses.
Through our years with PEPY Tours, moving it from a “voluntourism” organization to a development educational company, we have been able to offer bespoke educational experiences for travelers (which is where a lot of the ideas above came from). Our team has seen the power and appeal of educational travel first hand and have talked about the idea of an educational hotel chain for a number of years now. PEPY Tours own digital superhero, Wei Peng, and other wonderful friends, helped put this idea on “paper” as we entered it into a design contest. If you like the idea too, please rate it high (click on the image above or click here). If you like this concept and want to be involved in making more of these educational hotel spaces and learning centers, drop a note!