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River Cruising: It’s Now a Global Craze

Published February 11, 2014 | By Clark Norton

Uniworld’s River Victoria sails Russian waterways. Photo from Uniworld Boutique River Cruises.

River cruising has gone global, in a big way.

In yesterday’s post, we had a look at the phenomenal rise of European river cruising over the past few years, to the degree that many 2014 cruises are already sold out or nearly sold out.

Baby boomer travelers are the primary driving force behind the river cruise phenomenon, which has averaged a 14 percent annual growth over the past decade. (Just 20 years ago, most European river cruises were day cruises only.)

One line alone, Viking River Cruises — which caters mainly to baby boomers — will soon have 48 river cruise ships operating on European waterways, with 30 of them launched in the past three years.

In Russia, a series of waterways links Moscow and St. Petersburg. Viking, Uniworld Boutique River Cruises, Imperial River… Continue reading →

More Global Must-Sees for Baby Boomer Travelers

Published January 28, 2014 | By Clark Norton

A friendly Galapagos iguana. Photo by Clark Norton

In my previous post, I contrasted my list of “must-see” sites around the world with that of Patricia Schultz, author of the best selling bucket list guidebook, “1000 Places to See Before You Die.”

With an eye specifically on baby boomers, and without wanting to be too grim about it, I wanted to accentuate places that are themselves at least somewhat in danger of dying or being considerably altered in coming years, for a variety of reasons.

So far, we’ve covered five regions of the globe — Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia/New Zealand/Pacific Islands. Now let’s tackle the U.S./Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean area.

U.S./Canada: There are so many possibilities in North America, but I’ll pick Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming/Montana over Schultz’s Monument Valley.

Yellowstone is not only a remarkably diverse collection of sights — from… Continue reading →

Posted in Baby boomer travel, Boat travel, Countries, National Parks | Tagged Amazon Nature Tours, baby boomer travel, baby boomers and tourism, bucket list travel, Sacha Lodge, Santo Domingo, the Amazon, the Panama Canal., travel marketing, Yellowstone National Park | 2 Comments

According to government and private surveys:

Leading-edge baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1955) and seniors account for four out of every five dollars spent on luxury travel today.
Roughly half the consumer spending money in the U.S.--more than $2 trillion--is in the hands of leading-edge baby boomers and seniors.
Baby boomers (born 1946-1964) travel more than any other age group.
When asked what they would most like to spend their money on, baby boomers answered “travel” more than any other category, including improving their health or finances.