Richard Turen
It is necessary that I begin this column with an apology. As we've just completed the beginning of another exciting year together, I have written several columns on worldwide travel trends. Unfortunately it would appear that there are one or two significant trends that I completely missed.
The first is a sharp uptick in the number of couples asking for travel planning to safe, physically attractive destinations where they might be able to make babies. These trips are being referred to as "procreation vacations," and I suppose it won't be long before we see the initials PVS (procreation vacation specialist) added to agent business cards around the country.
It is clear what these vacations must provide: clean, comfortable, romantic settings, along with some sort of bedding.
They have broad appeal, especially for parents who have one child and need a quiet place to increase the family. I suppose we've all been selling procreation vacations for years, but I was never creative enough to know what to call them. Now I do.
Perhaps related to this concept, CNN has identified another, truly global trend I missed, called "debauchery tourism." The spiritual inspiration for this type of tourism are celebrities being pursued worldwide by tabloid media to all manner of party-hard destinations.
Some of our clients want to be celebrities. Some even seem to worship them. The paparazzi regularly follow them on vacation, hiding in bushes along the paths of secluded beaches. This type of vacation has broad appeal to the 25- to 34-year-old crowd seeking places that provide opportunities for hard drinking, drugs, alcohol, sex and gambling.
We seem to love the photos of "disheveled, inebriated famouses." Some of us, according to CNN, feel the need to go where they go to party. The hot spots are determined by the inside pages of People Magazine and the latest celebrity gossip website. I have a hard time identifying with this trend since my only requirement of a destination is that no one who has ever appeared on "The Real Housewives of (fill in the blank)" has ever been there.
This actually appears to be a serious trend, one that the Guardian newspaper in England lays at the feet of young adults who wish to relive the adventure of "spring break in America." Now that college is over, it would appear, there are numerous American, Canadian and European young folks who are not quite ready to do their parents' vacation. They want to go back in time to the way things were when they were in college.
In preparing this piece, I was surprised by the popularity of "U.S. college spring break" reports beyond our borders. It is seen as a very American phenomenon, one that is viewed with some degree of envy by young people overseas.
CNN reporters, as always, were extremely helpful, naming the top three destinations for debauchery tourism: Las Vegas, Buenos Aires and Cape Town.
Nice to see Las Vegas winning still another award.
It would be simple to sort of glide away from this trend. But the Euromonitor International trend report points out that travelers will seek a connection with their "hedonistic past" even as they age. Uh-oh.
So how to best prepare for the aging hedonist? Euromonitor suggests that cruise ships build more all-night bars and that resorts and hotels consider setting up sleeping areas near their swimming pools where guests can sleep it off.
I have to wonder what kind of selling environment will work best to attract this type of client. I did have a bar in my office for years, but I never thought about installing beer taps and hosting wet T-shirt contests.
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I was speaking to a potential new client the other day who went out of her way to make me understand that "we are not shoppers." (She said it in the same tone of voice one might use to say, "I am not a socialist.") I've been hearing that line quite a bit lately.
It has become a fashionable code phrase to delineate between upscale travelers and the T-shirted, trinket-seeking, fast-food tourism masses. But it just doesn't hold water. In fact, most of the studies I've seen, including one by the U.S. Travel Association, show that the majority of luxury travelers would rather shop than sightsee. Fewer than half of those surveyed said they preferred sightseeing to shopping, the No. 1 activity cited by people planning to travel abroad.
When you survey domestic travelers you get similar results. In fact, dining out is the No. 1 objective of domestic travelers, followed by shopping. Seeing the major sites is a distant third.
Part of this has to do with the number of poorly conceived sightseeing venues that are sold to hapless tourists. This is a particular issue in the Caribbean, where the size of the cruise ships has produced a growing need to entertain larger and larger numbers of day trippers, and a family of three bats in a cave now qualifies as a major tourist site.
Hotels are far behind the shopping and dining curve, preferring to promote their in-house restaurants as they always have and leaving shopping questions in the hands of the concierge. These are missed opportunities on a grand scale, as hotels could easily package shop-around and dine-around programs that would attract leisure guests to their properties.
Cruise lines are adding more dining options, but "insider shopping access" is still a relatively new and underused concept.
I do think there are some useful implications here for sellers of travel. An on-site shopping concierge who can make and map specific recommendations to travelers worldwide would be a valuable addition to staff. A full-time staff member with good worldwide connections might be persuaded to serve as the firm's on-site dining concierge, preparing lists of recommended restaurants nearby and assisting with reservations for a fee.
This is, in my view, a case of failure to keep our eye on the ball. We've been so preoccupied with sightseeing that we've often missed the true passions of our clients: authentic local dining and insider shopping.
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And finally, I want to introduce you to the woman who really loves cruising even more than the rest of us. Lee Wachtstetter and her husband, Mason, retired to Fort Lauderdale. Mason was a banker who shared his appetite for cruising with his wife, taking her on 89 sailings during their 50-year marriage.
When Mason died in 1997, his widow did what retirees in Florida are not supposed to do: She sold the house and moved. Where she moved is the interesting part of the story, because "Mama Lee," as she is affectionately known by the staff in her new home, is living in a place that many a retiree would envy. Mama Lee's "staff" -- all 655 of them -- live aboard the Crystal Serenity.
Mama Lee is a permanent resident. The $165,000 a year or so she pays in "rent" gets her a nice cabin on Deck 7, and it comes with amazing meals, evening entertainment and enriching lectures. Her apartment is unique in that it has the ability to float from place to place around the world. And almost every evening, this lovely lady dances with the onboard dance hosts before retiring.
She lived aboard a Holland America ship for several years before "moving apartments." Nor is she alone. There are currently three other women living aboard Crystal ships.
I went down to the beach to see the sun set over the ocean last night near my home. As I looked out into the blackness, I imagined Mama Lee out there somewhere, dancing. The next time someone talks about retirement, I'll smile to myself as I picture Mama Lee having a world-class dinner and greeting her "staff" by name. She is, by all accounts, the longest full-time resident aboard any of the world's cruise ships -- America's reigning "cruise queen."
May you sail forever, Mama Lee.