Tourism boards and brands build interest around an increasing variety of experiences as the market moves toward millennial-minded and experience-driven travel. Growing trends include last chance or climate change tourism, voluntourism, urban adventure tourism, food tourism and more.

One travel trend, which perhaps has plenty of untapped potential, is cannabis tourism. The travel industry, while showing some interest, has been reluctant to fully explore the possibilities of this market — despite the growing number of destinations that allow and embrace it. While still illegal in many places, the use of marijuana and other subsidiaries (such as hemp products, CBD oil and so on.) has become widely normalized and accepted in recent years. Destinations such as Colorado, Oregon and California have been front-runners in the efforts to make legalization a reality, and to profit on the use and sale.

According to a Colorado Tourism survey in 2016, 15 percent of those who traveled to the state (about 12 million people) participated in marijuana-related activities, and 5 percent reported it as a motivation for their trip. Visiting a dispensary, taking a cannabis tour or visiting a pot lounge or coffee shop has become a big draw for tourists in the same way wine tastings and vineyard tours became synonymous with destinations like Napa and Bordeaux.

Due to the political and personal divides on the subject and legal uncertainties of marijuana use, many tourism groups may be reluctant to get involved. While large tour operators, such as CannabisTours.com exist and provide experiences for guests, popular trip-planning platforms such as TripAdvisor do not prominently feature many cannabis tours and activities on sites. Colorado Tourism is restricted by state law from advertising to out-of-state tourists who live in areas where the drug is still illegal.

Colorado’s overall marijuana industry made about $2.4 billion in 2015, making it an extremely profitable market. Nine states in the United States legalized marijuana as of 2018. Outside of the United States, nine countries partially or fully legalized the drug, and about two dozen others decriminalized it. Many of these destinations now struggle with balancing concerns over the once-illegal drug with a potential multimillion-dollar tourism sector.