The most-remembered moment of one of my Cuba trips cost almost nothing and existed on no tour menu anywhere: at a lookout stop before a long bridge, we turned a rest break into a party, whole coconuts, daiquiris, music, the view. Guests still bring it up years later. You can create experiences based on what YOU feel like sharing, and those inventions are the only part of your itinerary no competitor can copy.
“You can create experiences based on what you feel like you want to share.”
How to invent signature moments
- Triangulate the raw material: pull options from Airbnb Experiences, ToursByLocals, and GetYourGuide, hand them all to AI, and then ask it to create things that DON'T exist yet from the pieces.
- Upgrade the dead time: transfers, rest stops, waiting-around windows. A lookout is a venue; a long drive is a tasting waiting to happen.
- Brand it with your ethos, if your brand is food and wine, the invented moment tastes like it; if it's music, it sounds like it. Signature moments should be unmistakably YOURS.
- Keep it off the published itinerary. An invented moment that arrives as a surprise does double duty, experience AND over-delivery.
Tours are commodities the moment they're listed. The coconut stop isn't listed anywhere, that's the entire point. Every trip you run has two or three dead zones waiting to become the thing your guests can't stop talking about. Find them, and invent.
Claire's own numbers
The framework, step by step
- 1
Triangulate the raw material
pull options from Airbnb Experiences, ToursByLocals, and GetYourGuide, hand them all to AI — and then ask it to create things that DON'T exist yet fro
- 2
Upgrade the dead time
transfers, rest stops, waiting-around windows. A lookout is a venue; a long drive is a tasting waiting to happen.
- 3
Brand it with your ethos — if your brand is food and wine
the invented moment tastes like it; if it's music, it sounds like it. Signature moments should be unmistakably YOURS.
- 4
Keep it off the published itinerary
An invented moment that arrives as a surprise does double duty — experience AND over-delivery.
Claire's own framework from this essay, in the order she teaches it.
Source: Claire B. Soares, from her own travel business and live trainings.
Common Questions
How do you create a signature travel moment?
Upgrade the dead time. Transfers, rest stops, and waiting windows are venues in disguise, and a branded moment there is something no competitor can book.
Can AI help design unique experiences?
Yes. Pull options from several experience platforms, hand them all to AI, and ask it to build something that does not exist yet from the pieces.
Should signature moments be published in the itinerary?
No. Keeping them off the published plan means they arrive as a surprise, doing double duty as both experience and over-delivery.
Written By
Claire B. Soares
6× Condé Nast Top Travel Specialist, Certified AI Consultant, and founder of Travel AI University. $3.4B+ in enterprise travel software sold to Google, IBM, Boeing, the federal government, and the DoD; $16M+ in luxury travel sales with Up in the Air Life.
About Claire
