As a member of Gen Y, a travel company seeks to launch a series of phone-free international trips this year. While society, particularly members who are glued to their digital devices, FTLO Travel aims to challenge twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings to break free from the digital chains and embark on an immersive travel experience.
Indeed, unplugging from technology is striking a chord with the generation who grew up with TikTok but a recent poll shared with Fast Company revealed that 77% of Americans aged 35-54 expressed a time to return to a time before technology took over the lives of every individual.
FTLO Travel Founder and CEO Tara Cappel explains the goal before the company’s phone-free departures are due to becoming increasingly dependent on our smartphones and negatively impacting our mental well-being in addition to our ability to be present.
“By removing this distraction, travelers can fully engage with the destination they’re visiting and build new relationships with like-minded trip mates,” Cappel said.
Phone-free trips may not be for everyone willing to cough up a $2000 fee to sign up for the experience and step out of their comfort zones, but FTLO Travel has high hopes that whoever will be a participant will embrace the entire trip without smartphones instead relying on old-school tools such as paper maps for directions, pocket dictionaries to translate, wake-up calls for alarm clocks, and good old fashion conversation. The trip departures for 2024 which start at $1,999 include Italy, Cuba, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Iceland.
Cappel expressed more on eliminating the reliance on smartphones for travelers to have more immersive, adventurous voyages that she hopes it encourages whoever participates to engage more deeply with the people, and the places, ask local shopkeepers for directions, order an unfamiliar item from the menu, or making more eye contact.
“It's the human interactions and sensory experiences that are the magic of travel,” Cappel said. “By being more present, I believe cell phone-free trips will foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the culture they are immersed in, which aligns with FTLO's fundamental mission.”
For those who are not ready to disconnect from their digital devices, FTLO Travel has a calendar of other trips for solo travelers with more than 250 departures are four to eleven days and go up to more than 35 countries around the world.