When small outdoor and adventure-travel companies specializing in trips for mature Americans opened shop 10 or 15 years ago, they were ahead of the game.
Now the average age of vacationers traveling with the country’s major adventure-tour companies is catching up. These companies, which traditionally targeted a hard-muscled crowd in its 20s and 30s, today say their key travelers are in their 50s.
Ward Luthi saw the growing wave of physically fit, outdoors-oriented seniors when he founded Walking the World in 1987.
“Society has changed greatly from when the predominant form of travel for older people was cruise ships or bus tours,” Luthi says. “Seniors used to walk a short trail in a national park or see it from the window of a car or recreation vehicle or bus.
Once they do, Luthi and others are finding, they become hooked on active outdoor vacations.
Ruth Mapes, a retired teacher from Troy, Mich., who has taken several hiking trips with Walking the World, typifies the growing number of 50-plus travelers joining adventure tours open to people of all ages, as well as those designed specifically for a mature audience.
“My husband and family were always athletic, but I was the one who sat and kept score,” Mapes says. “After my kids moved out, I began walking for exercise.”
Since her husband’s death, Mapes tried bus tours, but found she prefers to keep walking on vacation.
“A hike may be difficult, but afterward, the fact that you’ve actually done it is so exciting,” Mapes says.
Senior-tour operator Grand Circle Travel, noting the trend toward more adventurous mature travelers, in 1993 bought Overseas Adventure Travel. Ten years ago, Grand Circle’s customers were typically perceived as conservative middle-America folks in their 60s and 70s who signed up for bus tours, cruises and extended wintertime stays in warm-weather destinations. And many still do.
But as the years passed, more Grand Circle clients indicated a desire for off-the-beaten-path trips. At the same time, OAT was attracting more mature customers. In 1992, the median age of its travelers was 47. Only two years later, it had risen to 53.
This June, an OAT brochure headlined “Worldwide adventures designed for travelers over 60” went out to Grand Circle customers who had indicated a desire for more adventurous travel, and to OAT’s senior clients. Their response was more enthusiastic than either company expected. Within one month of the mailing, 10 trips were already filled.
OAT’s 60-plus brochure includes seven of the all-ages overseas trips that were rated easy-to-moderate in terms of the physical activity required.
But the 60-plus itineraries have been adjusted to include nicer hotels, fewer one-night stays or predawn departures and more frequent stops. They require less hiking and offer more meetings with local people. When camping, senior travelers sleep on camp beds rather than on the ground, in walk-in tents erected and tended by staff.
“We’re already starting to see a different generation now than we were even then,” Luthi says. “This is the generation that first got into the running craze, and they’ve stayed more athletic as they’ve gotten older.”
Not only are mature Americans more physically active than ever, they also have the time and money it takes to travel to the exotic places reached on many trips developed by OAT and other adventure-travel leaders.
Outdoor travel isn’t attracting only well-off seniors headed to faraway places. Individual outfitters, guides and small companies that offer shorter, less costly North American trips are appealing to more people in their 60s and 70s, says Dave Wiggins, who markets such vacations through American Wilderness Experience.
Mountain Travel/Sobek and Wilderness Travel say the average age of their clients is rising because the people who took their first rugged outings when in their 20s and 30s have remained loyal customers. OAT, on the other hand, finds that many of its growing number of senior travelers are trying adventure trips for the first time.
Senior travelers appreciate the smaller size of adventure-travel groups, for which the maximum number is usually 16 or fewer.
WHERE TO FIND THE ACTION
Two good sources for information about senior adventure travel are:
– Overseas Adventure Travel’s free “101 Tips for Mature Adventure Travelers”; call 800-493-6824 for a copy.
– “The Big Book of Adventure Travel,” by James C. Simmons ($17.95, John Muir Publications), which describes specific adventure trips offered by more than 135 companies and nonprofit organizations, cross-indexed by type of trip and destination.
For specific information about trips offered by companies mentioned in this story:
– American Wilderness Experience, P.O. Box 1486, Boulder, Colo. 80306; 800-444-0099.
– Grand Circle Travel, 347 Congress St., Boston, Mass. 02210; 800-859-0852.
– Mountain Travel/Sobek, 6420 Fairmount Ave., El Cerrito, Calif. 94530; 800-227-2384.
– Outdoor Vacations for Women Over 40, P.O. Box 200, Groton, Mass. 01450; 508-448-3331.
– Overseas Adventure Travel, 625 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138; 800-221-0814.
– Walking the World, P.O. Box 1186, Fort Collins, Colo. 80522; 800-340-9255.
– Wilderness Travel, 801 Allston Way, Berkeley, Calif. 94710; 800-368-2794.
