Classic Escapes
In most European countries, people get a month — sometimes six weeks — of vacation.
“You take your time, and you go, and it’s understood,” said Stacy Fiorentinos, owner of Classic Escapes. “But it’s not our culture here. We’re very much workaholics.”
Fiorentinos, who founded Classic Escapes in 2003, has seen firsthand that people don’t have as much time for longer trips; the trend has been that they “want to go to Africa, but they want to go for 10 days,” she said.
Although they aren’t traveling for as long as they once were, “people do go on vacation; they find the way,” she said.
“I’m finding more people traveling and more people actually doing more expensive programs,” Fiorentinos said. “I think it’s the economy. As the economy gets better and better, we find that people have the ability to go out and do their trips.”
Although Americans are traveling more, they still aren’t traveling longer. Classic Escapes does quite a bit of group travel for organizations, and most of the company’s travelers are generally in their 60s. But regardless of whether they’re working or retired, Americans simply don’t travel for extended periods of time, Fiorentinos said.
“When you work with Americans, you know you’re not going to do three- and four-week trips because they’re just not going to go,” she said. “The trend has always been to do a two-week trip with extensions.”
That’s how Classic Escapes accommodates time-pressed travelers. The company’s average itinerary length is 12 to 13 days, but Classic Escapes offers many shorter programs — about 10 days — with the option to add extensions, stretching the trip to more than two weeks, she said.
“That works for two reasons: It works for people who don’t have the time and, two, for the sale prices; the shorter trip is a much lower price,” Fiorentinos said.
For example, the company does a lot of travel to Africa, and its 11-day Kenya safari is its most popular tour. But Classic Escapes also offers shorter trips in Tanzania and Botswana. The 11-day Botswana tour includes an optional Victoria Falls extension that makes it 13 days, as well as a Cape Town extension that stretches the trip to 17 days, she said.
Flexibility and customization are also key to working with groups and individuals who don’t have the time for two-week or longer trips, Fiorentinos said. The company can turn one of its 12-day trips into a 10-day itinerary or it can work with groups to customize shorter programs.
“You have to have the flexibility, because if you don’t have the flexibility, you’re not going to cater to the majority of Americans these days,” she said.
Perillo Tours
People working more and traveling less is nothing new, said Steve Perillo, CEO of Perillo Tours. That has been the case among American travelers since the 1990s, if not longer, he said.
But in recent years, Americans have been taking more frequent but shorter vacations — a long weekend here, a five-day trip there — and they’re planning those trips around holidays, such as Presidents Day, Memorial Day and Veterans Day, to take advantage of the extra day off, Perillo said.
“I don’t think vacation time is increasing in this country, but the way they’re splitting it up is changing,” he said. “We start out with one week of vacation. Then you have to work years to get two weeks, and you maybe end up with three weeks. So Americans are chopping it up into smaller pieces and taking advantage of holiday weekends to make the most of what they get.”
Historically, Perillo Tours has centered on Europe; the company started in 1975 with a two-week trip to Italy, which is still its best seller. The tour operator tried shorter trips to Europe, but they didn’t take off, Perillo said, simply because travelers couldn’t justify the expensive airfare with the shorter length of time.
“You have to find the sweet spot between the cost and the time,” he said.
To accommodate travelers’ tighter schedules and still meet their expectations, Perillo Tours began scheduling trips to straddle a workweek and include two weekends; i.e., leaving on Saturday and returning the following Sunday. Although doing that can add to the cost because airfare is pricier on weekends, it’s a good option for people who have less time.
“That’s nine days, but you only have to take five days out of work,” he said. “That’s a classic solution to that problem.”
Two years ago, the company launched its seven-night Costa Rica trip, which was specifically designed to be accessible for travelers who could take only a one-week trip, Perillo said.
“That’s seven nights that offers you a chance to go to a foreign country,” he said.
Perillo Tours is also creating more domestic trips. Although the company has been operating in Hawaii for years, with four-, seven- and 10-day itineraries, Perillo is expanding its domestic program to offer shorter trips as well as tours that are geared toward learning opportunities, he said.
For example, the company is developing Civil War-Gettysburg itineraries for 2015 that will likely include four- and seven-night trips “perfect for the working person,” Perillo said.
