How do you attract young adults to group travel? Four words: water fight in Thailand. The event has all the ingredients you need: laid-back atmosphere, culturally memorable and reasonably priced.
Tour operators targeting the under-40 demographic offer this yearly Thailand festival called Songkran, or other similar experiences, to entice young adults to try group tours. An age group long overlooked by the group travel industry can now choose from a number of tour operators that specialize in trips marketed directly to them.
For example, Yomads began in 2013 as a branch of World Expeditions to offer trips solely for the 20s and 30s age demographic. The tour operator doubled in size within the first two years.
“Nowadays, young adults don’t necessarily want to go to an all-inclusive beach,” said Caroline Mongrain, North American marketing manager for World Expeditions Travel Group. “They want to experience a local area. This young generation loves to travel and learn about new cultures.”
Other tour operators have reached the same conclusion. As a result, young adult group travel continues to grow alongside the variety of tour options hand-picked just for them.
All About Style
The creators of Yomads thoroughly researched how to shape tours attractive to the under-40 demographic. They found that low price and flexibility were two of the most important components.
“Our tours have more free time and a lower price tag,” said Mongrain. “It’s not a superstrict schedule. It’s organized, but it’s really not.”
Fewer included activities help both the price point and flexibility, since tour operators can charge less while giving young adults the choices they desire. Adventure tour operator G Adventures also focuses on these two aspects in its Yolo brand of tours, which limits the age to 18- to 30-year-olds.
“There is a lot of flexibility built into our tours, so you aren’t herded around like a bunch of cows,” said Timothy Chan, public relations manager for G Adventures. “We offer a lot of free time for people to explore the destination based on their hobbies and preferences.”
For example, one Yolo option lets participants choose between a day wandering the streets of a Moroccan coastal town or taking a windsurfing lesson for additional cost. G Adventures has discovered other preference variants between the Yolo tours and the company’s other travel styles.
“What is really different about the Yolo travel style is that they are not only more affordable, but also really fast-paced to cover a lot of ground,” said Chan. “But they still speak to the G Adventures’ travel style. They avoid the big bus and include the culturally immersive experiences.”
Though Yolo trips limit travel to ages 30 and under, the company’s six other travel styles also attract many young adults under 40; they are Classic, Comfort, Active, Marine, Family and Local Living. The tours have many similarities, but the fast-paced tours usually pertain only to the under-30 traveler.
Tucan Travel, an adventure tour operator, offers a similar young-adult-only group called Budget Expeditions for 18- to 35-year-olds. These tours also strive to reach more destinations in a shorter amount of time compared with the tour operator’s other itineraries.
“The younger people are looking for a style of travel more fast-paced than the slightly older adult trips,” said Jess Millett, digital marketing manager for Tucan Travel. “The slightly older travelers are looking for a slower pace.”
Tucan Travel’s Adventure and Overland travel styles attract a larger age range of adults. Their tours follow the travel trend popular with all ages: more options for everything, including trip duration.
“People can go on a trip longer than the tour if their budget allows,” said Millett. “You can go on one of our tours and stay as long as you want.”
Another growing trend in group travel that appeals to adults under 40 as well as to other age groups is smaller group sizes. Many tour operators marketing to young adults report group size maximums of 16 and fewer.
