Traveling is not simply a way of moving from one place to another. It is a way for us to discover new places, understand new cultures and escape the mundane ways of our lives. We learn to experience new places and enjoy the company of different people from different walks of life. Cultural traveling, our touring especially, prioritizes experiencing life within a foreign culture instead of visiting a place on the surface level.
You get to visit the architectural and historical marvels of a particular place. Get to see the important landmarks and heritage sites in front of your own eyes. You get to taste the cuisines of a foreign land and participate in their cultural events.
The main purpose of visiting a foreign location is to experience unique places or practices in our traveling destination. Each culture is different, and their experiences differ as well. Instead of the usual traveling spots, you may have participated in adventurous sports, experienced an exciting escape room game, or visited a diner in your own city, but the same experience will be different in a foreign city. As a matter of fact, recreational zones like escape rooms and amusement parks are fast capturing interest from outside visitors.
Escape Rooms and Tourism
An escape room or breakout room is a live-action escape game where a team of players gets voluntarily locked inside a themed game room. The main goal is to solve puzzles and escape the room. You may have to accomplish additional tasks that are relevant to the game scenario. But most importantly? You must break out of the room within 60 minutes (the usual) or so. The teams usually consist of 4-10 people depending on the escape room.
Escape rooms are not a new thing, but it has certainly made a name for themselves in the last decade. Escape room games first gained popularity in Japan and then moved on to the rest of the world. In 1988, John Wilson created Behind Closed Doors, a text-based game that is considered to be a ground-breaking conception of an escape room game. Bit it was only in 2007 that real-life escape games became a thing with the first live-action escape game created by Takao Kato was developed by the company SCRAP.
Escape rooms are already an attraction, but thriller and slasher movies like Scream, Saw, and Fermat’s Room have made escape rooms even more popular. Right now, there is at least one escape room in all the major cities of the world. Be it Mr.X Puzzle House, in Shanghai, Clue Chase Escape Rooms in New York, Catacombs in Paris, or Breakout Escape Games in Bangalore, they all offer different escape room experiences.
Escape rooms are popular destinations for kids’ days out and even as a team outing location. It is no wonder that they are also becoming famous tourist spots for travelers. Many iconic and unique escape rooms are so famous that people especially travel across the world to visit them.
So Why are Escape Rooms a New Phenomenon in Tourism?
There are several reasons why escape rooms have become a new phenomenon in the tourism industry.
1. Exciting theme-based games
Escape rooms are unique and innovative games. They offer a lot of refreshing themes and involve fun technologies. At first, escape rooms involved simple puzzles and narratives, but now the themes are diverse and the game design even better. Instead of paper, most game rooms use digital technology. There are even talks of a new escape room, where they provide the instructions from an iPhone. Not only have the games become better constructed, but they are also even involving VR and AR technologies. This makes the games even more popular among all ages.
2. Unique Attractions
Many escape rooms across the world offer one-of-a-kind experiences. The Catacombs escape room takes you on an escape room journey in the famous Parisian catacombs. In Shanghai’s Mr.X escape room, you get a unique situation. There is no room scenario. You may take the help of anything inside the room and even the streets to escape the place. Other challenging escape rooms take you on a scavenger hunt or across the city. These experiences are enough to create a buzz on a global scale.
3. Interactive and memorable games
Escape rooms are team games and require you to communicate well with others. You must not lose your cool with the pressure and time crunch. Escape room games are usually family-friendly unless specified otherwise. So, you can have fun with all your loved ones.
The various thrilling scenarios like a zombie apocalypse, superheroes, psychopaths, and wizards attract a huge number of players. The memories you make in an escape room with stay with you forever. Whether you are a college student, a working adult, or even someone on a solo trip, you are bound to have fun in escape rooms. For an hour, you get to be the main protagonist of your own adventure and just have fun. It is an added bonus that escapes rooms are also very cost-effective.
Wrapping up
The pandemic has impacted all businesses badly. The tourism industry and live escape room games are no different. Since things are slowly opening up, it is time to pack your bags and go on an adventure. And the next time you are visiting near an escape room, make sure to book a slot for yourself and experience the hype surrounding escape room games.