How This Exceptional Travel Platform Is Redefining Authentic Storytelling And Cultural Connection

After co-founding a successful creative agency called The Monkeys and spending many years helping global companies build their brands and businesses, Justin Drape decided to leave this world behind and create something unique again that combined his love of creativity and travel; something that was also meaningful and fulfilling. A couple of years ago, he left the agency and got together with Michael Canning to build Exceptional ALIEN.

It is a travel platform that enables audiences to experience travel, creativity, and culture through the lens of culturally connected creators who share their personal experiences and recommendations for places that inspire them.

Their intent was refreshing - to enable audiences to experience travel, creativity, and culture through the lens of culturally connected creators who share their personal experiences and recommendations for places that inspire them in an authentic way and with credible storytelling that the audience can trust.

Drape explained, “It’s something we wish existed for ourselves. We wanted to provide a refreshing antidote to mindless travel, untrustworthy sources, information overload and the recommendation artifice that dominates our social media”.

The Purpose of Exceptional ALIEN is to ‘Inspire people to see the world through diverse perspectives’. “Travel expands your mind through enriching cultural exchanges and experiences, and it helps people grow personally and professionally. What may feel alien at first, can bring us all closer,” Drape added.

The platform offers interactive guides called Travel Playbooks, containing personal recommendations and trusted tips (Travel Gems) from exceptional creators, including Grammy Award winners, award-winning filmmakers, photographers, designers, chefs, Olympic Gold medalists, philanthropists, and creative industry leaders in various fields from 33+ countries. “We’re so grateful to all of the featured talent who have shared their experiences and valuable insights,” Drape acknowledged.

“People can now search, collect, curate, plan and book their travel in one end-to-end experience and it allows people to travel and feel connected to a global creative community. Some folks have called us Spotify for Travel,” he added.

Exceptional ALIEN has already collaborated with several tourist boards, including Atout France, Tourism New Zealand, Visit Victoria, and Tourism South Africa, to create innovative stories. Now there are more brand collaborations currently in play .

We chatted more about the origins and details of a fascinating partnership with the South African Tourist Board. “The team at South African Tourism wanted people to learn about the country and experience it in a unique way. After they saw the innovative stories, we were creating, we got together to collaborate on what became ‘Exceptional South Africa’, Drape elaborated.

The series allows visitors to access the country’s most exceptional places and experiences through the lens of 10 prominent creators - including Ndaba Mandela, philanthropist, author and grandson of iconic Nelson Mandela, who shared his Travel Playbook for Soweto where he was raised in the family home, which is now the Nelson Mandela National Museum. Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning shared his Travel Playbook for Jeffreys Bay, which remains one of his favorite destinations despite his infamous shark encounter that made global headlines.

Wildlife conservationist Kevin Richardson — also known as “The Lion Whisperer” — shares his recommendations for the best places to view wildlife, and how he believes travel to be critical in inspiring the future protectors of wild spaces. The series also features DJ Uncle Waffles; MasterChef South Africa judge Zola Nene; renowned comedian Loyiso Gola; South Africa’s first Black female winemaker Ntsiki Biyela; pro surfer Tanika Hoffman;, National Geographic photojournalist Gulshan Khan and Springboks rugby great Tendai Mtawarira — aka “The Beast”.

The Exceptional ALIEN platform is also working with First Nations in Australia through a series titled ‘Always Was - Stories from the oldest surviving culture in the world’. “Audiences and visitors will get to go on a journey with First Nations creators as they explore their ancestral homelands within Australia, and share the powerful connection between creativity and Country,” Drape outlined. The series is being co-curated by Jeremy Donovan, a Kuku Yalanji (Western Yalanji) and Gumbaynggirr man from the First Nations of Far North Queensland and the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. Drape noted, “Jeremy is a prolific artist and iconic didgeridoo player in Australia and his vision for the series is to inform, inspire and entertain people, while helping them understand how to respectfully experience the many Aboriginal nations within the nation.”

We discussed working with brands that can bring value to the growing Exceptional ALIEN community. Exceptional ALIEN wants to work with brands that have a purpose. It is currently working with some local and global brands who understand and respect the fact that they have to bring more than money to the growing Exceptional ALIEN community. There has to be some kind of value exchange where its audience gets something useful or insightful from the brand’s involvement.

“We aim to create and curate authentic and trusted stories with the brands, so they fit seamlessly into the growing global community. Often, we’re working with globally recognized talent, so everybody has to be clear on the project objectives from the start to get the best outcome. Our early brand projects have been very collaborative and transparent and, given our extensive experience from our creative agency background, that’s not as common as it should be,” Drape shared.

Though the interesting thing about travel is, most of the things people use and experience in their day-to-day life, they also use while they’re travelling - be it tech, hygiene products, healthcare, fashion, clothing, shoes, apparel, food, drink, finance, and entertainment. Of course, there are airlines, hotels, luggage and other products and services that are travel specific, but a lot of products and needs relate to travel in one way or another.

Exceptional ALIEN has grand plans, not only to expand to work with more National Tourism Offices and brands, but also expand the platforms’ creative future.

Drape shared, “We want the future of travel to be creative. If there are categories like business travel, budget travel, luxury travel and adventure travel, why not invent a new category called Creative Travel. If people think back upon their travels, often the most memorable moments have been imbued with creativity. For example, the chef’s menu, the fine wine, coffee, music performances, theatre, architecture, hotel design, lobby culture, fashion, galleries, exhibitions, sculpture, and public parks are all the result of creative practices.”

With the right curatorial platform, Creative Travel can become its own genre. At the moment, Exceptional ALIEN has 250+ Travel Playbooks for 77 Destinations in 33 countries so there are obviously a lot more stories, creative people and places to capture and share from around the globe. Its MVP App is now available on Apple and Android and there are more product features and announcements coming soon. “We’re really excited about the response and momentum we have created to date because we want to help make travel frictionless and more insightful and enjoyable. We want our Travel Playbooks to enable a more enriching way for people to travel and experience the world,” Drape concluded.