Travel Agent - October 29, 2007 - (Page 89)

TOUR OPERATORS Family Travel Tours Expand IN RECENT MONTHS, AT LEAST TWO TOUR OPERATORS, Adventures by Disney (www.disneytravelagents.com) and Tauck World Discovery (www.tauck.com), have expanded product offerings geared toward family travel, suggesting that this segment may once again be experiencing a boom, except this time on land. Just 10 years ago, cruise lines reported an uptick in trips where everyone from grandma and grandpa to aunts and cousins all came along for the sailing. Yet the concept was so new, the United States Travel Data Center, the research component of the Travel Industry Association (www.tia.org), had yet to compile data on the trend, a spokesperson for the organization told The New York Times at the time. That has since changed, with TIA reporting that in 2006, there were kids in tow on 208.3 million trips, and in 2003 (the most recent year A family at Rome’s Colosseum on Tauck’s “Italia Bella: Rome to Venice” eight-day trip HEARD ON THE STREET WE HEAR THAT ABSOLUTE TRAVEL (www.absolute travel.com) is launching a travelermatching service for solo travelers, Absolute Travel Companions, which applies the FIT concept in the pairing of like-minded travelers on private tours of no more than three people. After a client fills out an online questionnaire, the tour operator tracks down the perfect travel partner and roommate, if so desired. (Note: Absolute Travel expects travel partners doubling as roommates to be the exception rather than the rule.) Absolute Travel will even facilitate an introduction. To start, the company is targeting women who are older than 50 for the new service. CONNECTING YOU For more information on family travel offerings, visit www.travelagentcentral.com/familytravel data is available) 22 percent of travelers between 18 and 34 took their parents and/or grandparents on a recent soft-adventure vacation. Tauck’s business reflects this. “Two-thirds of our Bridges business is something other than the conventional ‘parents-traveling-withtheir-children’ model,” says Tom Armstrong, corporate communications manager for the tour operator. “A third is grandparents traveling with grandchildren, and another third is family groups of three generations, or even family reunion groups.” Citing strong demand, Tauck earlier this month announced that in 2008 it would add four programs to Tauck Bridges, its selection of escorted family travel packages that launched in 2003. The collection now includes a seven-day trip to Rome and Sorrento and a seven-day excursion to the Canadian Rockies, as well as Bridges’ first-ever trip to Spain. Domestically, the collection includes an eight-day trip exploring Philadelphia; Hershey, PA; Gettysburg, PA; Williamsburg, VA; and Washington, D.C. Since the program’s launch four years ago, Bridges has been one of the company’s fastest growing businesses, with pre-season 2008 bookings showing double-digit growth. The rise in family travel can be attributed to growth in experiential travel, according to Armstrong. “Visiting new places and experienc- ing new cultures is viewed as something that’s fundamentally good for children, and that’s a very powerful motivator for parents to travel with their kids,” he notes, adding that today’s families are spread out across the country, which also contributes to the trend. “Instead of having everyone converge at the grandparents’ house in Ohio, extended families are instead meeting in Hawaii, Italy or the Galapagos Islands,” Armstrong says. Also next year, the family-oriented Adventures by Disney (www.adventuresby disney.com) will up its product offerings from 12 to 18 trips. Disney executives recently told Travel Agent that after the first year of Adventure by Disney’s launch in 2005, 30 percent of the following year’s travelers were repeat bookings who cited a desire to spend quality time with the family again. Ten of the company’s 2007 trips are returning in 2008, alongside new debuts in Australia, California, China, France, Germany, Peru and Spain. A selection of ABD adventures making a return in 2008 include “City of Knights and Lights” in London and Paris; “The Emerald Isle” in Dublin, Killarney and Shannon; and in Costa Rica, “Path to Pura Vida” in San Jose, Arenal, Manuel Antonio and Quepos. JENNIFER MERRITT October 29, 2007 TravelAgent | 89 http://www.disneytravelagents.com http://www.tauk.com http://www.tia.org http://www.absolutetravel.com http://www.absolutetravel.com http://www.adventuresbydisney.com http://www.adventuresbydisney.com http://www.travelagentcentral.com/familytravel

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Travel Agent - October 29, 2007

Travel Agent - October 29, 2007 Online Now Contents From the Editor From the Publisher Contributors Europe European Tour Packages Mexico Mexico Deals Pacific/Asia Australia Deals Las Vegas Vegas News, Packages and Deals Caribbean Caribbean Deals Hotels Tours Hawaii Cruise River Cruising Takes on a New Life Cover Story: Tanzania Agent Profile Technology: Using Videos Trabsportation: Riding the Rails The Industry: Agenda Holland America and Trump Hotels Bahamas Luxury Booms, BVI Gets First Resort in 15 Years Expanded Family Travel Tours Korean Air Exclusive Report From Results! Travel Conference Travel Week In the Spotlight Editorial Index Advertsing Index Classified Marketplace Trendwatch

Travel Agent - October 29, 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.