Baby boomer travel
Back in the 1980s, Ward Luthi — an experienced Outward Bound instructor and adventure tour guide — served on the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors. The commission, he says, found that “active outdoor travel was rated one of the top three goals of older adults.”
Walking the World trips are limited to those aged 50-plus — who are mostly baby boomers. Photo from Walking the World.
Based on the commission’s findings, Luthi in 1987 founded Walking the World, which he says was the first company to offer active outdoor adventures just for those aged 50 and above in the U.S.
It was a prescient move, because with almost all the 76 million U.S. baby boomers — the most active generation of older travelers ever — now reaching 50-plus (the youngest boomers are 49), Luthi’s target market is growing exponentially.
I’ll be talking more about Walking the World tomorrow and… Continue reading
Woodstock Memorial at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Photo by Clark Norton
This weekend marks the 44th anniversary of 1969’s Woodstock Festival, one of the iconic events of the 1960s, when hundreds of thousands of mostly then-young baby boomers poured onto Max Yasgur’s Farm near the small town of Bethel in the Sullivan County Catskills, New York.
(As I’ve written about previously in this blog, the festival was moved from Woodstock, NY, to Bethel, some 60 miles west, due to various snafus.)
And as always happens on this anniversary weekend, thousands of folks high on music, nostalgia and perhaps a few other things descend on Bethel to honor the memory of the festival, which marked the height of the peace and love era. Many camp out around Hector’s Inn in Bethel, where volunteers are dishing out free meals to the tie-dyed visitors, or at what’s now called… Continue reading
Ken Dychtwald, CEO of Age Wave
I hope that by now most travel agents realize the power of baby boomers in the travel market, but if not, I hope they’ll listen to these words from Ken Dychtwald, CEO of Age Wave (which has tracked boomer trends for decades), as he addressed a group of agents at a recent conference:
Baby boomers, Dychtwald told the agents, as reported in this piece from Travel Weekly, are the catalyst of “an entirely new era” for the travel industry.
Boomers have the money to travel, they want to travel, and they increasingly have the time to travel, as more and more reach retirement age, Dychtwald said. They bring their families along on their trips, too.
And boomers are looking for something different when they hit the road.
“There is an appetite for newness,” Dychtwald told the agents, “for different experiences that… Continue reading
Baby boomer women exult after conquering Haleakala volcano on Maui, by bike. Photo courtesy of boldlygosolo.com
When it comes to vacation spending decisions in America, it seems, women rule. Especially baby boomer women.
Women definitely have the wealth. Those age 50 and older have a net worth of $19 trillion, and control more than three-quarters of the financial wealth in the U.S., according to a Mass Mutual Financial Group report. In turn, these same women spend 2 1/2 times that of the average American.
According to statistics from the she-conomy blog, written by Stephanie Holland of Holland and Holland Advertising, women in general account for 85 percent of all consumer purchases in the U.S. — and 92 percent of vacation spending.
To repeat: women spend more than nine out of ten vacation dollars.
That means that marketers should pay serious attention to women travelers. But many women say… Continue reading
An aerial ad flies over the Ocean City, NJ, beach. Photo by Clark Norton
Ever since my family and I have been coming to the Jersey Shore in summer — off and on for more than 30 years — I’ve spent a few minutes each beach day staring up at the sky as small planes tow intriguing banners with messages advertising various places to eat, drink and otherwise spend your money.
Such as: “$1 beer every Monday night at Captain Bob’s Brew Dock!”
Or: “Try Luigi’s for the Best Lasagna in South Jersey!”
Or: “Empty Your Wallet at the Trump Palace in Atlantic City!”
Well, I made that last one up, though it would constitute truth in advertising.
I’ve often wondered, though, just how much effectiveness such ads have — do they really rake in enough customers that it pays for Luigi to hire a small plane for, say, a… Continue reading
The MS Europa 2. Photo from Hapag-LLoyd.
I’m onboard the Europa 2, Hapag-Lloyd’s new luxury cruise ship, sailing from Sicily to Sardinia in the western Mediterranean.
One of the afternoon offerings onboard is a meat seminar featuring Wolfgang Otto, one of three German brothers who recognized a need in Germany and decided to fill it: supplying Germany’s finest Michelin-rated restaurants with top-quality beef and pork.
Otto admitted to me and the other baby boomers onboard that just eight years ago he knew very little about meat, yet today his family’s company, Otto Gourmet, is regarded as the top beef and pork purveyor in Germany. Kobe cattle and Iberico pig are two of the products they distribute to both top restaurants and private customers.
For enlightenment on the subject, he and his brothers first turned to a Nebraska rancher, Dan Morgan, who taught them the finer points of how to… Continue reading
Valletta, Malta – I’m in the capital of Malta before embarking on the Europa 2, Hapag-Lloyd’s new luxury cruise ship, for a cruise through the Western Mediterranean.
Malta is home to forts and remnants of the Knights of St. John, but nary a falcon in sight. Photo by Clark Norton
Valletta is a beautiful walled city, once home to the Knights of St. John — originally formed during the Crusades to bring Christianity back to the Holy Land — who fled here from the island of Rhodes in the 1500s.
When the knights arrived here, they paid a fief to the Spanish king of one falcon per year in order to occupy the island; eventually, the payment evolved into a golden falcon. No one knows what happened to the golden falcons, but the mystery formed the basis of the Dashiell Hammett novel The Maltese Falcon, later made into a… Continue reading
Milford Sound is one of New Zealand’s top attractions. Photo by Clark Norton
I was surprised to read a few days ago that Tourism New Zealand — the organization charged with luring travelers to kiwi land and making their visits more enjoyable — has just launched its first mobile app.
Called “Essential New Zealand,” the new app can be downloaded for free and used to access travel advice throughout the country without having to have a WiFi connection.
Among its current features you’ll find:
The top 10 New Zealand experiences;
“must-do” experiences for 26 regions and many popular locations;
photos, descriptions and prices for hundreds of activities and attractions;
contact details and detailed map locations for activities and information centers;
and ways to plan, save and share your favorite activities.
More features are planned for future versions.
Smartphone usage is reported to have increased by 28 percent in New Zealand… Continue reading
In a recent post we reported on “gramping” — an amalgam of grandparenting and camping — aimed at baby boomers who want to stay in the comfort of a lodge while the younger generations of their family sleep in tents at nearby campsites.
Now another lodging is adding its own creative twist to lure baby boomers: Baby Boomer Adventure Camp.
Purity Spring Resort — time for camp, boomers! Photo from Purity Spring
From September 20-22 this year, The family-owned Purity Spring Resort in East Madison, New Hampshire, will host a weekend’s “camp” intended to tweak the nostalgia button resting inside each baby boomer’s heart — in this case, reliving those carefree days at summer camp back when we were kids (even if it is in the fall).
Campers can participate in classic activities like swimming in the lake, hiking, archery, tennis and kayaking.
But then comes the twist: according… Continue reading
Whitewater rafting in the Adirondacks of upstate New York.
I was glad to read in The New York Times that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo took time out from their busy schedules to promote tourism in the Adirondacks, a huge tract of parkland in upstate New York.
The two officials, who haven’t always seen eye-to-eye politically, agreed to meet each other oar-to-oar for some whitewater rafting on the Indian River. Each was part of a team of six rafters — consisting of various aides, bodyguards and relatives (including Cuomo’s two daughters) — who competed against each other for bragging rights, to see who could complete the river runs the fastest.
The rafting competition was part of a week-long event called the Adirondack Challenge, designed to call attention to various activities in this mountainous, lake-dotted region of the state: everything from art shows… Continue reading
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