There’s a Seinfeld episode where Kramer is obsessed with launching a business where customers can make their own pizza. “We give you the dough, you smash it, you pound it, you fling it up in the air, then you put the sauce on it, you sprinkle the cheese and then you slide it into the oven!”
George and Jerry think the idea of anyone wanting to do such a thing is beyond belief.
“I can’t imagine anyone in any walk of life, under any circumstances wanting to make their own pizza pie. But that’s me,” says Jerry.
Welcome to 2026 when Kramer’s big idea of people wanting to get elbow deep in culinary adventures, and just about any other type of adventure, has come true. Don’t we all want to lean into the local landscape we’re visiting rather than standing a distance away, merely observers?
Nearly every new luxury program introduced these days has a deeply immersive component to it. In fact, the words, “immersive” and “experiential” have become nearly has hackneyed as the word “luxury.” It’s rare for a press release promoting a new travel product to not have phrases that use these words, but that’s a beautiful thing. As travel journalists we’re not just writing about “stuff” anymore. Luxury travel suppliers are consistently developing new ways to engage with their local communities to bring them front and center with their guests.
In this week’s World of Luxury newsletter Hien Do from Realistic Asia tells us that clients are traveling more slowly through Asia, visiting fewer countries so they can savor the cultures they are witness to.
In Malta, guests are paying more to intensify their experiences over a shorter amount of time. Neal Debono, general manager of the ME Malta says that what he loves about the American visitor is that they want a deep dive into the location they’re in.
“It is always a pleasure to be of service to a guest who is interested in our beautiful Maltese heritage and in experiencing new things,” says Debono.
The bottom line? It's not all about making pizza, but it is all about learning how our fellow humans in other lands live. And the more we roll up our sleeves and put ourselves in each other’s shoes, the more we’ll understand each other. And that’s a good thing.
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