Experiences are as important as sights on new ‘bucket lists’, says Richard Forde, head of trade sales at Newmarket Holidays.
Six weeks on from the launch of the latest Newmarket Escorted Tours Collection, covering 2019 and 2020 departures, early bookings have shown every indication that the recent trend for travellers looking for more active holidays featuring activities as well as ‘must-see’ places is continuing apace, with ‘experiential tours’ very much to the fore.
Over recent years, in addition to seeing our customers looking to tick off an ever-broadening range of wish-list destinations, from the Great Wall to Angkor Wat to Machu Picchu, we’ve noticed that new tours featuring unusual activities are in especially high demand.
Small is beautiful – and manageable
Echoing a sentiment already expressed by other Atas members in these columns, we have also noticed a real trend towards small group tours, and are making sure we offer holidays that retain all the value and benefits of travelling together in a group, but also enable participants to enjoy activities that are often denied to larger parties.
Good examples are home-stay hotels in India. Family run, these properties, as well as offering home comforts – often of a very high standard – bring guests into family life, with market visits, cookery demonstrations and the like offering real ‘behind the scenes’ experiences.
Much closer to home, we’ve introduced a ‘gourmet’ food and wine tour to Northern Italy, which is one of the new season’s best-sellers. Offering participants the chance to cook alongside well-known local chefs, together with visits to vineyards and olive-producers for tastings, the experiences add another dimension to a tour of what is a perennially popular corner of the world.
We don’t leave out the sightseeing – clients still want to tick off the likes of Verona and Venice – but it’s not touring all day, every day.
Broad range
The new tours are part of the trend towards operators going beyond the long-established, ‘sit-back-and-take-it-all-in’ holidays that have been the mainstay of the escorted touring industry for decades.
Our customers are much more active, and much less sedentary than they were in the past. Whether it’s braving a zip-wire over the rain-forest canopy in Costa Rica, taking a Harley-Davidson excursion through the Rockies, enjoying a cycle-excursion on a European river cruise, taking a tuk-tuk ride through Udaipur at dawn, or joining a jam session till dawn in a Chicago blues club, the breadth of possibilities is ever-increasing. Long-gone are the days of “on the right, there’s the castle”- type of touring.
The new Newmarket Collection, in addition to a vast range of traditional touring holidays, also features heritage and vintage railway journeys, small-group safaris in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, small-ship cruises in the Adriatic and Aegean, and two fascinating river cruises in Vietnam and Cambodia, all of which are a world away from the traditions of coach-inclusive touring.
We’ve come a long way since our first customers went to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower 35 years ago, and who knows where they’ll be going, and what they’ll be doing, over the next 35 years!