Options Included
Cathy Greteman, owner of Star Destinations in Carroll, Iowa, sees demographic changes influencing the way her customers want to travel and is adjusting her products accordingly.
“This is the boomer era,” she said. “Boomers are a little more active than the generations we saw years ago. So it’s fun to create tours based on people who are more active and looking for more active experiences. People like the option of something a bit more physical.”
Options have become a key way that Star Destinations deals with varying activity levels among its clientele. On many tours, the company will offer a day with optional activities — all included in the price of the tour and all of equal value — so that people can explore their specific interests.
“It may be an option to do some shopping, to do a cooking school or to do some hiking or walking with a naturalist,” Greteman said. “It’s amazing how it usually works out very evenly when you have several different options. It’s usually a third of the group for each activity. And when they come back, every person feels like they’ve made the best choice.”
Greteman said active programs are particularly popular in destinations such as Italy, Ireland and Iceland, where the scenery compels visitors to spend time outdoors. She has also seen an increase in outdoor activity among river cruise customers.
“I’m noticing that on our river cruises, we have many more people wanting to do biking,” she said. “All of the vessels offer bikes now. So whether they take a biking tour or just check the bikes out in port, it’s something we’re seeing a lot of people interested in.”
‘Active Discovery’
For the Globus family of brands, a large travel organization that includes Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and river cruise line Avalon, a wide diversity of destinations and customers means that some level of outdoor activity has always been in the product mix. Recently, though, the company has increased its focus on active experiences, particularly on its Avalon river cruises in Europe.
“We’re doing a little shift away from the traditional concepts in river cruising,” said Vanessa Parrish, channel marketing manager for the Globus family of brands. “We have a new concept called Active Discovery. It’s aimed at allowing the guest to see Europe in a different way, on the Rhine or the Danube.
“The active component allows you to bike ride through Vienna. You can take a canoe ride. You can take a running tour if you’re a runner.”
Parish said that the Active Discovery program has proven popular and that Avalon is doubling the number of departures offering the program in 2018.
On land tours, Globus offers a lot of outdoor activities in specific destinations, such as the national parks of the West. In Costa Rica, a destination known for its adventure experiences, the itinerary includes a mix of soft-adventure inclusions and options for more intense thrills.
“People want to see the jungle,” she said. “We go to a national park, to a hot spring and a volcano experience that is a lot of fun. We also go to Monteverde, which has a skywalk of bridges in the jungle. We also have optional excursions on all of our tours. In Costa Rica, that might be horseback riding to a paddle trip down the Penas Blancas River and an adventure park with zip lining. Those adventurous things are very popular.”
New Adventures
Country Travel Discoveries, based in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, focuses on tours that explore unusual, backroads destinations. Owner Steve Uelner said the company is slowly taking on opportunities to package more active outdoor experiences into its products.
“My take is that the active seniors who want to be outdoors may be a little more apt to plan their own trips,” he said. “Having said that, we have in the last couple years or so developed tours that have been more active.”
The company recently began offering a trip to Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia that features guided kayaking, as well as biking, whale-watching and other outdoor activities, along with an optional zip lining excursion. About 20 people took that trip in 2016. Uelner is expecting more interest on an upcoming bicycle tour in Europe.
“It’s called the Heart of the Danube Cycling Tour,” he said. “It’s going to be 11 days, traveling along the Danube on land. Most of the days there is a biking portion of the trip, anywhere from 16 to 28 miles. But it’s easy activity, and you’re not biking up a mountain.”
Next year, Country Travel Discoveries will offer a similar trip in England, Scotland and Wales that will include both biking and hiking components.
These new cycling trips came from an outside inspiration: Missouri Life Magazine.
“They sponsor a biking trip across the state of Missouri every year, and they approached us with the idea of doing trips in Europe,” he said. “They have an audience that they can market to, and we’re marketing it to our customers, too.”
