escorted tours | report
tour
WHILE BABY BOOMERS continue to drive the escorted tour segment, Gen Xers and Millennials are discovering doing it yourself online can sometimes come back to bite you. Tour operators, meanwhile, are finding that factoring in free time for escorted tour clients is popular with all ages. Terry Dale, president and CEO of the US
Tour Operator Association (USTOA), says tour operators are building flexibility into packages more often, at group tour clients’ requests. According to Pew Research, Millennials have overtaken Baby Boomers in population this year (75.3 million compared to 74.9 million), and are demanding more experiential
travel options
along with shared-interest small group travel. Dan Austin, president and founder of USTOA
member Austin Adventures in Billings, Montana, says that when the firm started 16 years ago, 95% of its tours were pre-set with published departure dates. Today, it's 65%.
a time to
Stairs inside Vatican Museum, Rome
The days of only set-in-stone coach tours are gone as operators increasingly offer flexible and semi-escorted packages, reports Robert Carlsen
"Trough social media and target marketing,
we’re now attracting a younger demographic on our tours. Tey seem to like the fact that we’re flexible and can cater to various needs and interests," says Austin.
According to USTOA's biannual economic
Millennials have overtaken Baby Boomers in population this year (75.3 million compared to 74.9 million), and are demanding more experiential travel options along with shared-interested small group travel
impact study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, demand for experiential and culturally immersive travel remains high, with members offering programs in a variety of categories. Nearly three quarters (71%) of USTOA membership provide travel and tour packages offering art and culture and family/multi-generational features, with 64% promising culinary components and 57% providing adventure-focused packages. Experiential and theme travel is also key to
National Tour Association (NTA) members, with ‘voluntourism’ rising 87% in NTA's latest member survey. Agritourism is up 62%, LGBT travel up 50% and Hispanic travel 32%. “Clients, however, are asking for more and
more free time on tours while, at the same time, wanting it to be as inclusive as possible”, says Mike Weingart of Air Land Sea Consultants in Houston, Texas. u
fall 2015 | ASTAnetwork | 47
IMAGE: AWL IMAGES
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