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“Mystery Vacations” Take Travelers To Random Destinations
Ticket to anywhere // Image by Kait Cunniff with DALL-E
Mystery vacations — surprise travel packages sold on Groupon — have popped in demand after going viral on social media.
The Big Trip: There are three things Americans love — travel, a good deal, and gambling. Mystery vacations wrap all three into one (hopefully) fun package. They’re so budget-conscious and gamified that they may become one of the primary ways young people start traveling.
Behind The Itinerary: First came sports betting. Then came prediction markets. Now, there are mystery vacations.
The Groupon deals, which are organized by a UK-based travel agency called Mystery Vacations, offer a flat fee for a package that includes round-trip airfare (typically on a budget carrier) and a hotel stay (somewhere with three or more stars) for two to seven nights.
Travelers can choose from three separate tiers depending on where they’re flying from, with prices ranging from $199 to $299 (there’s an additional fee for solo travelers).
After buying a package, travelers fill out a form with their desired travel dates and which airport they want to fly out of. A company representative then calls within 72 hours to tell them where they’re going.
When travelers post about their trips online, they’re awarded gift cards (like a $50 Amazon gift card), which is why these trips have blown up online.
Final Destination: Now here comes the gamble — travelers are randomly assigned either a gold-tier trip (seven nights in Europe or Asia), a silver-tier trip (four nights in places like Iceland or somewhere tropical, like the Caribbean), or a bronze-tier trip (some US city). According to WSJ, “for every 2,000 vouchers sold, 6 trips will fall into the gold tier and 12 in silver.” That’s by design because the company apparently loses money on the more exotic trips, per Mystery Vacations director Gaurav Jaura. But it’s the Golden Ticket that keeps people coming back for more.
There are no refunds if you don’t like the revelation of your destination… so the key to enjoying a mystery vacation above all else is flexibility.
Prediction: It feels like mystery vacations are going to be the new scratchers — the lottery ticket for the experience economy.
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.