Why I Do This
Like many boomers, my first travels were with a backpack and not much more than an idea of where I wanted to go. No plans, no guidebooks, and certainly no travel agents. I had more time than money, so taking a 48-hour train across the country was no big deal and a wonderful way to meet other young travelers.
Flash forward 30 years as I plan a two-year round-the-world trip for husband Jacob and I to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We were looking for a blend of options that would combine two styles of travel: nice hotels and small tours for comfort and intellectual stimulation mixed with backpacking for a degree of safe adventure.
It wasn’t long into the planning process that we discovered we’d have to make it up as we went along because there were very few options offered by travel and tourism industry providers that suited our needs. Everywhere we went, we met other boomers equally frustrated by tours, cruises, and other travel products that fell far short of their needs.
A Coach Is Born
One of the most frustrating mini-trips I investigated took place in the third month of our two-year trip. At first, I attributed my difficulties in finding information about the Copper Canyon in Northern Mexico to my poor Spanish or the fact that maybe I wasn’t the expert researcher I considered myself to be. It seemed as though all the information and websites I found took me back to the sole vendor of the train tour, known as “El Chepe,” which happened to own the big hotels along the way.
Finally, I pieced together an itinerary that included the train tour, but I didn’t buy the package the hotels, tour, and train company all seemed to be pushing. But the only way to see anything outside of the train itself was to buy day tours from the train company, and the only information on hotels was on those owned by, you guessed it, the train company.
The day we took the train, a busload of American tourists joined us at the little station in El Fuerte. One of the younger couples looked at us in surprise, came over, and asked: “Where did you two come from?” We weren’t sure what they meant, so we just said the hotel up the road. They then asked us if we were doing the train trip up the Copper Canyon on our own, and when we said yes, their faces fell. “They told us there was no way to do this trip, except with a tour. And now we’re stuck with them for two weeks.”
We would hear this lament so often in the two years of our trip that I decided I had to help more people figure out how to travel on their own, even when it seemed impossible to do so. It turned out that the Copper Canyon was difficult to research and plan because of the train company’s corporate strategy. The Mexican train company funneled all tourists through tour companies where they had little choice but to buy the entire package: train fare, high-end hotels, and day tours, including company-owned restaurants.
Once inside the Canyon, we saw backpackers, small hotels, and restaurants, and many alternatives to those offered by the train company. These small operators couldn’t afford to advertise, had no presence on the internet, and certainly couldn’t compete head to head with “El Chepe.” There’s a lot more information online now, including more choices for lodging, but it’s still mostly through tour company websites.
Boomer Frustrations
In the five years of our continuous travels and living abroad, we’ve surveyed thousands of boomers on their travel needs, preferences, frustrations, and desires. What has struck me the most is how frequently the same issues are raised and how often these are expressed under the general feeling that the industry is “simply ignoring us.”
I’ve been gathering information from boomers to inform travel companies and tourism organizations on how they must adapt their offerings to meet the needs and desires of boomers. That means doing more than slapping a photo of a 60-something couple on a tour brochure for Branson, Missouri. The products themselves need to be changed to reflect what boomers want and then we can talk about how poorly boomers feel represented in marketing and advertising materials.