baby boomer travel trends
The Woodstock Monument Memorializes the 1969 Festival. Photo courtesy of Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
Quick quiz: Where was the 1969 Woodstock Festival held?
If you said, “uh, Woodstock?” you’d be…wrong.
Due to various snafus, Woodstock — one of the seminal events of the baby boomer era, which brought many of the top musical performers of the day onto a rain-drenched stage before hundreds of thousands of mud-soaked, tie-dyed and oddly mellow spectators — was actually held in Bethel, New York, some 60 miles away from its original venue.
Bethel happens to be just 13 miles from where I now live.
Recently I took a friend over there to see the memorial monument at the site — now located on the grounds of the beautiful Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which itself has hosted the likes of Bob Dylan, Elton John and the Dave Matthews Band to… 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
Dubai’s Burj Al Arab — Often Voted the “World’s Most Luxurious Hotel”
When baby boomers travel, surveys show, they aren’t generally looking for familiar amenities – they’re looking for exotic (or at least different) foods, people and experiences that they can’t find at home.
In other words, the old “ugly American” stereotype of folks who will only eat hamburgers in France or who stare goggle-eyed at someone dressed a bit differently cannot be applied to most boomers. (Thank goodness.)
Furthermore, many baby boomers are sophisticated travelers who have journeyed abroad multiple times in their lives, both on vacation and on business. They long ago developed a taste for Thai food (very possibly in Thailand), have long since done the Eiffel Tower, Tower of London and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and can speak authoritatively on the relative merits of the Spanish Costa Brava and the French Riviera.
I don’t like… 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
The Isaac H. Evans sails the Maine coast. Photo from Maine Windjammer Association
Brenda Thomas, the hard-working but fun-loving captain of the historic Maine Windjammer Isaac H. Evans, may or may not think of herself as a travel marketer, but she’s a good one.
During the Evans’ four-month annual summer season, when it plies the Maine coast and scenic Penobscot Bay — anchoring in secluded coves, visiting small islands and offering views of lighthouses and marine life — Thomas offers a number of specialty cruises that seem tailor-made for baby boomers.
Chocolate Lovers Cruise? Check.
Knitting Cruise? Check.
Lighthouse cruise? Check.
Perseid Meteor Shower cruise? Check.
Puffin Cruise? Check.
“Old Salts” cruise? Well, maybe “Older Than We Once Were Salts” cruise. Check.
Music Cruise With Hank Cramer? I have no idea who Hank Cramer is, but what the heck…check.
Lobster Festival? Double check.
Even Thomas’ swashbuckling Pirate Adventure cruises… 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
RVs for sale — and baby boomers are buying.
The recent news that the Winnebago company — which makes motor homes — nearly doubled its profits in the 2013 spring quarter is just the latest indication that the baby boomer recreational vehicle boom is in full gear.
Winnebago motor home sales jumped more than 50 percent in the same quarter, while trailer sales jumped 10 percent.
Some 9 million U.S. households — 8.5 percent — now own RVs, and the number is growing rapidly. One out of every six U.S. households say they have future plans to buy an RV.
Baby boomers — the youngest of whom are now nearly 50 years old — are Winnebago’s and other RV manufacturers’ biggest customers. And with many of the oldest boomers (now 67) retiring or nearing retirement, they’re devoting more and more time to travel.
RV owners average more than a… Continue reading
Captain Cook Cruises’ 130-passenger vessel sails through Fiji. Photo by Clark Norton
Possibly due in part to recent bad publicity about large ocean cruising vessels gone wrong, travel agents are seeing an upsurge in interest in small ship and river cruising, according to an internal American Express Travel survey released during a recent cruise industry conference in Vancouver.
The survey of 250 Amex agents showed that 38 percent of them ranked small ship cruises as their highest-demand voyages, followed by megaships at 31 percent and river cruises at 27 percent.
This dovetails with my own surveys of baby boomer travelers, who have often told me they would never consider taking a cruise — until I ask about small ship and river cruises. Then I often get this kind of reply: “Oh, those are different — I’d try them.”
Megaships carrying thousands of passengers — with their myriad on-board activities, entertainments,… Continue reading
Boomers on a ROW Adventures river trip. Photo from ROW Adventures
If you want to know how important boomers are to adventure travel tour operators, ask Peter Grubb of Idaho-based ROW Adventures, which was named Travel and Leisure’s top tour operator for 2012.
“VERY important,” Grubb told me, especially since most of ROW’s international trips are comprised primarily of members of the baby boomer generation, now aged 49-67. International trips may range from sea kayaking in Baja and whale watching in British Columbia to snorkeling in the Galapagos and venturing to Machu Picchu. Boomers, he notes, often have more time and money to spend on such trips than other groups.
Boomers also join many of ROW’s domestic adventure trips, which include rafting, hiking, kayaking and canoeing in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. (ROW began as a small Idaho river-rafting operation 34 years ago and has expanded rapidly over the past… Continue reading
Sailaway to Alaska aboard the Disney Wonder. Photo from Disney Cruise Lines
When my wife and I took a Disney cruise to Alaska last summer — sans kids, who are now grown — we weren’t sure if we would feel out of place on a Disney vessel. We had enjoyed all the usual Disney entertainments when our kids were young, but how would we fare as a couple on the Disney Wonder, sailing through Alaska’s Inside Passage?
Would we be overwhelmed with small children in the swimming pool and dining rooms, and besieged by roaming Mickeys and Minnies?
We needn’t have worried. While Disney cruises are certainly as family-friendly as you would expect, with far more kids sailing with Disney than on the average Alaska cruise, Disney is expert at balancing the needs and desires of different ages and interests — just one way in which they are expert… Continue reading
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