baby boomer tours
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
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
Boomers still rely on old-fashioned print travel guidebooks — along with the latest apps.
Nancy Parode, who writes about senior travel at about.com, has a perceptive piece detailing eight reasons why a baby boomer or senior would make a good traveling companion. (Although I don’t like to mix the terms “senior” and “baby boomer” — for me, “senior” starts where “baby boomer” leaves off — I understand why others may at times lump them together.)
Among the eight reasons, Nancy writes, is that “We [boomers] don’t need high-tech devices to have a good time” and “won’t get too grumpy if our computers and smartphones don’t work.”
Now, I admit I do sometimes get grumpy in those situations, but Nancy’s point is that baby boomers have lived most of their lives without such technology and can adapt to life without them.
Similarly, she argues, baby boomers still know how… Continue reading
Boomers explore Angkor Wat with Classic Journeys. Copyright Classic Journeys.
At Classic Journeys — a company that specializes in walking tours with cultural components around the globe, as well as culinary and family trips — baby boomers are the prime target market.
In fact, according to Classic Journeys co-founder and president Edward Piegza, fully half their guests are aged 60 or older, and, he writes, “their thirst for adventure is alive and well.”
Classic Journeys attracts boomers for all the reasons I’ve been writing about in this blog:
* Itineraries span the globe from Morocco to New Zealand, Turkey to Cambodia, Corsica to Costa Rica, Argentina to Zambia — 33 countries on five continents — helping to slake boomers’ thirst for seeing parts of the world that are off the beaten track. (See my previous post on boomers’ taste for the exotic.)
* Classic Journeys walking trips are adventurous… Continue reading
Holland America ships carry knitting cruisers around the globe. Photo from Holland America.
Having written a column about theme cruises for Porthole Cruise Magazine for five years, I’ve covered everything from Goth cruises to ghost-hunting cruises, murder mystery cruises to psychic cruises, baseball legends cruises to pirate cruises (see my previous post on the latter) and many more.
For those unfamiliar with theme cruises, they involve like-minded groups of people going for a cruise together to spend usually a week or more pursuing a particular subject, including the topics above or others such as motorcycles, blues music, ukulele playing, ballroom dancing or soap operas. The may attend classes, talks, and practice sessions, take specialized shore excursions, and play trivia games and share meals with their fellow devotees. In some cases, they go scuba diving, play soccer at sea, or even run marathons.
The thing that’s struck me most about the… Continue reading
Leopard in tree — Botswana. Photo by Mark Lakin, Epic Road.
Combining luxury and adventure travel — two boomer favorites — with another boomer hot-button, “transformative experiences,” Epic Road offers customized trips that, for now at least, focus primarily on African safaris and the Arctic. Plans are in the works to expand into Asia, and Epic Road will work with clients to set up trips in other regions of the world if requested.
Luxurious adventure trips are offered by a number of other companies. The Epic Road twist is those “transformative experiences,” including specific humanitarian and conservation initiatives that travelers can build into their journeys if they choose. (See my previous post on tours popular with baby boomers that give back to the local communities they visit.)
Started by two longtime friends and devoted world travelers, Mark Lakin and Marc Chafiian, Epic Road’s declared ethos is “to raise… Continue reading
Uniworld’s River Queen on the Moselle River. Photo courtesy of Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection
Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection, whose trademarked slogan is “the world’s only authentic boutique cruise line,” is offering experiences that are right out of the baby boomer promotional playbook.
According to a recent press release, “enhancements for 2014 include delving even more into authentic and personalized travel experiences.”
“Authentic” and “personalized travel experiences,” please note, are exactly what baby boomers are looking for when they leave home.
The press release continues: “Uniworld’s onshore experiences will continue to focus more on flexibility with their ‘Choice is Yours’ options, along with more authentic and enriching experiences with more interaction with local communities, such as their ‘Do as the Locals’ and exclusive ‘Village Days’ offering the ultimate insiders’ experience.”
“Flexibility”…”Choice is Yours” options…”authentic” (again)…”enriching”…”interaction with local communities”…”Do as the Locals”…”insiders’ experience”…
All of the above are words and… Continue reading
The S.S. Badger car ferry, still plying Lake Michigan as it did when I was a boy
This fascinating piece on nostalgia in today’s New York Times got me thinking about the role that nostalgia plays in the decisions we make about where and how we travel — especially as it relates to baby boomer travelers.
The Times piece points out that nostalgia was traditionally considered a “mental defect” of sorts, related to sorrow and depression. Recent studies have shown, though, that feelings of nostalgia for days, events and people gone by can actually brighten your mood and make you more optimistic for the future.
As someone who has a fair amount of nostalgia for places I’ve lived and traveled to in the past, I’m a big believer in the findings of those more recent studies.
Baby boomers (now 49 to 67) have reached the age when nostalgia tends to… Continue reading
Is St. Petersburg, Russia, on your bucket list? Photo by Dennis Cox/WorldViews
Could be sky diving, could be bungee jumping — could be any number of things that might actually have you kicking the bucket somewhat before your allotted time.
Or, in my case — and that of many other baby boomers — it’s traveling to as many places as we can before we’re immobilized in one way or another.
Now, some of these may well include a certain level of risk: trekking to Machu Picchu; angling for a great shot of African buffalo on a safari in Kenya (tip: angle away while remaining safely in your vehicle); even climbing the Great Wall of China (some of those… Continue reading
AARP: The Magazine — has long since replaced “Modern Maturity”
“Senior citizens.”
“Retirees.”
“Aging.”
“Golden Years.”
“Silver Years.”
“Mature.”
“Prime Time of Life.”
Seven terms that a very perceptive academic journal article (by Kaylene C. Williams of Cal State-Stanislaus and Robert A. Page of Southern Connecticut State University) warns marketers against ever using when trying to appeal to baby boomers.
I would add another: “elder.” (See my post on why the non-profit tour operator Road Scholar was wise to change its name from Elderhostel.)
Why? I’ve made this point in previous posts and will make it again: most boomers — some of whom are turning 67 this year — do not consider themselves old. And if they secretly think they’re getting old, they don’t want to admit it, even to themselves.
Remember, leading-edge boomers, who came of age in the 1960s, didn’t want to trust anyone over… Continue reading
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