travel marketing
Baby boomers ride the Rogue River while rafting with ROW Adventures. Photo from ROW Adventures.
We’ve had Black Friday (which actually began Thursday), Small Business Saturday, Return-Home Sunday (I made that up), Cyber Monday, and now comes Adventure Tuesday ™ from ROW Adventures.
ROW Adventures, which I’ve written about in previous posts, is a top-flight adventure travel outfitter based in Idaho. As owner Peter Grubb told me last summer, one of his top target markets is baby boomer travelers, especially for international trips — though boomers also do their share of kayaking and whitewater rafting in Idaho and elsewhere.
Now’s the time to lock in some savings if you want to take a ROW trip next year.
ROW’s Adventure Tuesday™ promotion offers discounts on a number of upcoming trips if you book from 9 am PST (12 noon EST) Tuesday December 3 until 5 pm PST (8… Continue reading
In what may be the worst potential development in flying since airlines started charging for everything from checked luggage to checkered food service, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has announced that airlines may soon be permitted to allow passengers to make cell phone calls during flights.
Please tell me that this is a nightmare from which I shall soon awake — because it may mean I’ll never get another moment’s rest on a plane (they’re hard enough to get as it is).
Just what I want to hear at 30,000 feet: the taxing trials and tribulations — or for that matter the often trivial triumphs — of the stranger seated next to me, snug as we are already in the ever-tighter, crowded cabins. With no escape.
My noise-cancelling headphones should help, but somehow cell-phone conversations seem to permeate even those. And I can’t blast music into my ears while trying… Continue reading
Luxembourg is a land of medieval castles and forested hiking trails. Photo from Luxembourg National Tourist Office.
I always like to call attention to enterprising travel marketing ideas, and a group of five hotels in the Ardennes region of northern Luxembourg have banded together to come up with a good one.
If you stay in any of their hotels, you can walk, bike or ride a motorbike between them, and the hotels will transport your luggage for you — much like a guided group walking tour would do, except you do it on your own (at less expense).
The five hotels form a rough loop about seven to 13 miles (12 to 22 km.) apart, so you can easily put together a five-day walking plan or perhaps a three-day biking trip, using any combination of the five hotels. There are about 70 miles (120 km.) of hiking paths in the… Continue reading
A CroisiEurope boat glides peacefully down a canal as passengers sit on deck. Photo from CroisiEurope.
Americans have always been able to go on CroisiEurope river cruises — Europe’s largest river cruise line with 30 ships — but now the family-owned company has added a U.S. website and call center for consumers to book with them directly.
Until now, travel agents could book U.S. passengers onto CroisiEurope ships, but the company’s new U.S. presence means that it’s going after the American market in a big way — including, of course, baby boomer travelers, who are the lifeblood of just about all river cruising operations.
At this past weekend’s River Cruise Convention in Cologne, Germany, CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) UK director Andy Harmer told delegates that boomers are “incredibly impactful for our business,” praising them as a “wealthy, active and physically fit generation of consumers.” He urged agents selling river… Continue reading
The Polish town of Wieliczka has a subterranean salt mine that houses a cathedral complete with chandeliers made of salt. Photo from Flickr.
I spent yesterday in New York City at VEMEX (Visit Europe Media Exchange), where a throng of travel writers met with dozens of representatives of European travel destinations, tour agencies, railways, river cruises and rental cars.
Representatives were allotted 15 minutes to update each writer on what was new, compelling and noteworthy about their destinations or companies, with writers busily scribbling unreadable notes and — more helpfully — pocketing cleverly packaged thumb drives that they could later plug into their computers with all the salient information.
And there was information aplenty, providing a good indication of what types of visitors and customers they’re seeking and how they hope to attract them.
I can guarantee you that baby boomer travelers — who tend to favor… Continue reading
Boomers on a river rafting trip still crave adventure. Photo from ROW Adventures
The short answer to the question in the title above is “yes.”
In the nearly six months I’ve been writing this blog, we’ve laid out a number of characteristics that define baby boomers, and baby boomer travelers in particular, that help separate them from other generations. Here are six of them:
* They are more willing to spend money on themselves — including travel — than the generations previous to them.
* They place more emphasis on value than simply on what things cost; that is, they enjoy luxury and comfort and are willing to spend more for it if they perceive it to be good value. Similarly, they’re less interested in budget travel for its own sake than previous or succeeding generations — largely, perhaps, because they have more disposable income as a group.
* They… Continue reading
Baby boomer travelers looking to relocate in the European Union during retirement (or before) without going through pesky residency and visa requirements can now achieve instant EU citizenship: for a price.
According to a story by Thomas Steinmetz in Global Travel Industry News, the Mediterranean island nation of Malta has just approved a plan to sell Maltese EU passports — and citizenship — for a mere 650,000 euros (about U.S. $875,000), which would allow you to live anywhere within the European Union.
France? Mais oui!
Spain? No problema!
Germany? Machen Sie sich’s bequem!
The Netherlands? Een glas bier, alstublieft! (Well, I don’t know much Dutch)
Personally, I love Malta (see my earlier post on it) as well, so if I had that kind of cash it would be a tough choice. There are 28 EU countries altogether, and citizenship in one permits residency in any other.… Continue reading
Thailand’s Koh Tapu island (also known as James Bond Island) will look familiar to many baby boomers.
Count the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in on the global trend of trying to appeal to baby boomer travelers to visit its shores. More than 70 million potential visitors with money to spend cannot be ignored.
TAT has launched a campaign in American TV, print, and online ads as well as enhanced social media outreach to convince boomers to journey to the land of colorful temples and palaces, flower markets, kick boxing, and, of course, some of the world’s best food.
Prime beaches, certainly, are part of the mix, but Thai Tourism officials are stressing that there’s a lot more to Thailand than sun and sand (which, after all, the Caribbean provides in much greater proximity).
There are elephants to ride, tribal villages and ancient ruins to visit, rivers and klongs (canals)… Continue reading
Pastoruri glacier in the Peruvian Andes is fast disappearing, revealing ancient rocks below the ice.
The effects of climate change on glaciers, coral reefs and other natural phenomena around the globe are well documented: disappearing ice in Antarctica and Greenland, disappearing habitats for Arctic polar bears, disappearing marine life from coral reefs off Australia and other tropical waters around the globe being among the best known (and most alarming) examples.
But I wasn’t aware until I read this great piece from Reuters (via skift.com) that glaciers are also disappearing from the Peruvian Andes, or that Peru had the greatest concentration of tropical glaciers in the world, which are highly vulnerable to climate change.
The main gist of the article is that Peruvians who depend on tourist visits to one fast-shrinking glacier, the Pastoruri, are facing threats to their livelihood that mirror the threats to the glacier itself, which has lost… Continue reading
Frankfurt Germany’s airport allows you to stash your coat while heading to southern climes.
If you’re like me, you’ve had some really bad experiences in airports.
I’m not talking about just long, slow security lines — though those can cause serious problems catching some flights — but huge distances to cover between flights without sufficient airport transportation; bad signage; lousy dining choices; airline lounges that are almost impossible to find; lack of storage facilities; escalators that don’t work or don’t exist at all, forcing passengers to lug heavy suitcases up stairways; luggage carts that require coins in currencies visitors haven’t acquired yet; lack of sufficient seating near gates (or anywhere, for that matter); baggage carousels that don’t work, stranding some bags in limbo; inadequate restroom facilities…I could go on, but you get the picture.
Sometimes when I’m having to dash between flights — such as I did a few months… Continue reading
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