Experiential travel is about presenting the customer with the surprise of the "unknown," the luxury of "unexpected choices" and the empowerment of "overcoming hurdles" (such as scaling a peak) so that he feels he has completed a "journey towards self-actualization."

Travel makes us happy, because it promises us the self-discovery needed to reach the pinnacle of Abraham Maslow's view of the human hierarchy of needs. Before him, Carl Jung called it individuation.