Recommend May 2018 - 10

6
TOUR
VACATIONS

According to our
respondents, Baby Boomers
are the number one
demographic requesting
tour-style vacations, with
multigenerational groups
coming in second.
Makes sense when you
factor in that a tour vacation
is a great option for clients
who want to visit museums
and cultural attractions.
In fact, 52 percent of
respondents said that it's the
reason their clients opt for
a tour-style vacation. Other
noteworthy reasons include
the customization that
clients receive on tours; the
small group options that are
available; the VIP access to
attractions; and the luxury
that is included in many of
the tour operator packages.
Twenty-two percent noted
that their clients opt for tours
because of the shopping
opportunities and 19 percent
noted the tie-ins with
festivals and concerts.

10 may 2018

GOINGSOLO

Solo travel is gaining momentum, with many
travelers opting for this type of vacation when
they "want to be on their own, and want a totally
relaxing, do-anything-they-desire vacation," says
travel agent Cheryl Dworman. Another reason,
the majority of survey respondents said, is for
clients to unplug from their life (52 percent pointed
to it) and travel agent Shari Kavalin said that
many of her clients are taking solo trips because
they are "divorced."

Destinations: From Emerging to Most Popular
No need to point this out-Iceland is hugely popular. It nabbed the top place among our
survey takers in both the top emerging destination for 2018/19 and the top off-the-beatenpath destination for 2018/19. It also had quite a few respondents pointing to it as the most
popular destination, booking-wise, for 2018/19. In fact, one agent noted that "Iceland is
super hot and will continue to be for 2018/19." But what other destinations are moving the
emerging destination needle? Croatia, Costa Rica, New Zealand and Portugal. Cuba, too,
still ranks high among the respondents, when it comes to a destination that is still in the
emerging stage.
Although it feels as if travelers have stepped foot on practically every inch of the world,
not all travelers have discovered off-the-beaten-path destinations. Survey respondents
were all over the map when it came to choosing a destination that remains under the
mass tourism radar, but Croatia, here again, got lots of entries, as did several countries in
Latin America, including Belize, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru. In Asia, many
respondents pointed to Thailand
Below: Northern lights in Iceland; Hvar, Croatia.
and Vietnam, while in Europe they
pointed to the Azores. One travel
agent even noted that "many people
have not had the opportunity to
visit the smaller islands in the
West Indies."
When it comes to the most
bookable destinations for 2018/19,
no surprise that destinations such as
Alaska, the Dominican Republic,
Florida, Hawaii, Italy, Jamaica,
and Mexico got the most entries. In
fact, the Caribbean as a whole was
the most popular "destination" for
bookings among survey respondents,
with many pointing to the DR
and Jamaica, as we noted, as well
as Aruba, Barbados, Cuba, and
Grenada. In Europe, Italy soared to
the top, but the region as a whole
got lots of entries, and within that,
France got quite a bit of love as did
Greece and the UK.

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