baby boomers
Boomers walking the Irish coast get gorgeous vistas — and health benefits, too. Photo from Walking the World.
Can travel keep you healthier as you grow older?
Yes, says a new white paper by the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA), commissioned by the U.S. Travel Association, and purporting to show for the first time a series of direct links between travel and increased good health.
While acknowledging that data on these links are somewhat limited, and urging more medical research on the topic, a GCOA survey of various health studies shows that the evidence already out there is compelling.
“Those who stay healthy as they age are able to sustain active lifestyles, including traveling into our 70s, 80s and beyond,” the study notes. “It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that the reverse is also true: as one travels, one will be healthier.”
Start with brain health, which includes warding off… Continue reading
Viking River Cruise boats glide through Europe. Photo from Viking.
The travel site Skift.com has just named its top 50 global travel marketers for 2013, including the senior vice president for marketing of Viking River Cruises, Rich Marnell.
Little wonder — Marnell was hired in 2007 as Viking’s director of marketing for North America, and since that time Viking’s share of the burgeoning European river cruise market has risen from 20 percent to fifty percent, remarkable considering that competition is getting increasingly fierce.
I’ve written previously about Viking River Cruises’ approach to marketing: a laser-like focus on their target customer — the classic baby boomer.
“What we’ve done is tailored the product experience for the 55+ culturally curious in mind,” Marnell told Skift. “We don’t try to be everything to everyone. For us, we see that as an advantage rather than a disadvantage.”
At a press conference last spring … Continue reading
The Little Havana Food Tour in Miami is one experience you can book at Peek.com. Photo from Miami Culinary Tours.
Let’s say you’re on your way to San Francisco and you’re looking to do things beyond the standard trip to Fisherman’s Wharf, a stroll through Golden Gate Park, or a cable car ride.
Maybe you’d like a sailing tour of San Francisco Bay, a walking tour through North Beach, an electric bike tour of San Francisco, or a food and farm tour of Marin County.
Or maybe you didn’t even know these latter possibilities existed.
This is where a relatively new website called Peek.com comes in. You can go to the site, click on San Francisco (there’s a colorful box with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on the home page), and an array of possible activities will come up, organized by categories: Food and Drink, Romantic, Under $50,… Continue reading
Spaceport America — will it revive the fortunes of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico? Photo from Spaceport America.
Baby boomers of a certain age may vaguely recall when a small town in southern New Mexico, then called Hot Springs due to the natural hot springs in the area, agreed to change its name in 1950 to Truth or Consequences.
Ralph Edwards, the host of a popular radio and soon-to-be TV quiz show (called, of course, Truth or Consequences) offered to broadcast the show from any town that would change its name to, you guessed it, Truth or Consequences, in honor of the show’s tenth anniversary. Edwards returned every year for decades on the anniversary, and Truth or Consequences turned the occasion into a celebration called the T or C Fiesta. (The town is now usually referred to simply as T or C by the locals).
T or C gained… Continue reading
A Chianti vineyard in Tuscany is included on the Gold Standard tour of Italy offered at Zicasso. Photo from Zicasso.
Zicasso — an online service that matches travel agent specialists with luxury travelers to plan memorable customized trips around the globe — is touting five specially planned trips on five different continents to mark its fifth anniversary in business.
The five tours promise experiences and access beyond the ordinary. They include the “Gold Standard Culinary and Art Tour of Italy,” the “Ultra Luxury South African Safari,” the “Australian Family Adventure,” the “Insider’s Guide to Brazil,” and “Off the Beaten Path China.”
Along with the tours, Zicasso is offering an intriguing promotion: the first five travelers to book all five tours by the end of 2013 will receive free roundtrip airfare to all five. The airfare is in coach class and must be used by 2015.
Of course,… Continue reading
Boomers on a river rafting trip still crave adventure. Photo from ROW Adventures
The short answer to the question in the title above is “yes.”
In the nearly six months I’ve been writing this blog, we’ve laid out a number of characteristics that define baby boomers, and baby boomer travelers in particular, that help separate them from other generations. Here are six of them:
* They are more willing to spend money on themselves — including travel — than the generations previous to them.
* They place more emphasis on value than simply on what things cost; that is, they enjoy luxury and comfort and are willing to spend more for it if they perceive it to be good value. Similarly, they’re less interested in budget travel for its own sake than previous or succeeding generations — largely, perhaps, because they have more disposable income as a group.
* They… Continue reading
Flooding after the typhoon hit the Philippines. Photo from the Brisbane Times.
Here’s a chance to really help the people of the Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, beyond sending money for relief aid.
Projects Abroad, which offers volunteer tourism opportunities in countries around the globe, is putting out a special call for volunteers to help in the wake of the disaster that struck the Philippines last week and left thousands of survivors homeless and communities lying in ruins.
Projects Abroad’s Disaster Relief project will focus on areas in the northern part of Cebu Island including Bogo City, Tabogan and San Remigio, all hit hard by the typhoon.
Volunteers are needed to help restore schools and childcare centers and look after local children while their parents are working to clean up the rubble left behind. Government aid may not arrive for weeks, so volunteer help is critical to bridge the… Continue reading
Thailand’s Koh Tapu island (also known as James Bond Island) will look familiar to many baby boomers.
Count the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in on the global trend of trying to appeal to baby boomer travelers to visit its shores. More than 70 million potential visitors with money to spend cannot be ignored.
TAT has launched a campaign in American TV, print, and online ads as well as enhanced social media outreach to convince boomers to journey to the land of colorful temples and palaces, flower markets, kick boxing, and, of course, some of the world’s best food.
Prime beaches, certainly, are part of the mix, but Thai Tourism officials are stressing that there’s a lot more to Thailand than sun and sand (which, after all, the Caribbean provides in much greater proximity).
There are elephants to ride, tribal villages and ancient ruins to visit, rivers and klongs (canals)… Continue reading
MSC cruises sail the world. Photo from MSC Cruises
MSC Cruises has announced new “Boomer Plus” rates for passengers 50 and older at the time of sailing. That applies to almost all baby boomers (now aged 49-67) except for some born in 1964, the tail end of the baby boom.
The Boomer Plus rates include “special reduced pricing” — the line is advertising seven-night or longer Caribbean cruises starting at $779 per passenger based on double occupancy — as well as reduced deposits ($100 per person).
The discounts can be combined with MSC Club (past passenger) discounts as well as with military and civil service discounts that MSC offers (which may be up to 10 percent off).
Boomer rates are also available on MSC’s Mediterranean, Northern Europe and Grand Voyage cruises.
You need to ask for “Boomer Plus” rates when you call (1-800-666-9333).
Keep in mind that, like many special… Continue reading
Bicycling in Holland is the best way to see the countryside and get some exercise, too — but without hills to climb. Photo from Netherlands Board of Tourism.
Is there a better place in the world for baby boomers to take to bicycles than The Netherlands?
The country is mostly flat. It’s also incredibly scenic. Distances are short. There are bike paths everywhere. And just about everyone else is on a bike, too.
Here are some amazing stats:
* Holland has 18 million bicycles — 1.5 million more than inhabitants. And 84 percent of the Dutch population owns at least one bike.
*Holland has some 18,000 miles (29,000 kilometers) of cycling paths and nearly 3,000 miles (4,700 kilometers) of roads have special lanes for cyclists.
* There are at least a dozen different types of bicycles in Holland, according to the Netherlands Board of Tourism. You’ve heard of mountain bikes,… Continue reading
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