NEW YORK -- Ask adventure tour operators what their clients will
want in the 21st century and they start pitching words like "real"
and "authentic" with blinding speed.
Travelers won't necessarily be looking for the next big rush,
they say. Instead, they will demand more on a social and spiritual
level.
This is a trend that's expected to continue well into the next
century, according to representatives of two adventure tour
operators.
"As the world becomes increasingly Disney-ized or Vegas-ized,
there will be an even greater need and desire to [visit] authentic,
off-the-beaten-track destinations for genuine encounters with
people and wildlife in their environments," according to a
spokesman for Mountain Travel/Sobek in El Cerrito, Calif.
Books on spirituality and religion abound these days, which he
sees as hard evidence that people want more authenticity and
spirituality in their lives and their vacations.
He predicted that adventure travelers of the future would seek
out sacred sites because they are "the embodiment of that
desire."
At Butterfield & Robinson, executives see a similar
trend.
"Major religions are losing people who are looking for something
else in their lives," said Kelly McKinney, sales manager of the
Toronto-based company. "On the ground, experience and interaction
allows people to put things in perspective by seeing the
similarities or differences among people," McKinney said.
Mountain Travel's spokesman predicted that the desire to see
wild animals will "never go away, providing that the animals are
still there."
As more big-game animals are pushed closer to extinction or are
forced into more artificial environments, demand for seeing these
creatures in their natural state will only increase as time goes
by, he said.
Such tourism benefits not only the travelers but also the
objects of their curiosity.
"A real strong case [can] be made that sustainable, ecologically
appropriate tourism can help insure that animals do not become
extinct," the Mountain Travel Sobek spokesman said.
According to McKinney of Butterfield & Robinson, travelers
also will demand greater depth from their adventures.
"Right now, a lot of trips just scratch the surface, hitting the
big cities in China, for example. People are going to want to go
farther off the beaten path, to places that they haven't been into,
like Yemen, parts of the Mideast like Iraq or Iran and Cuba,"
McKinney said.
In that same vein, McKinney said more and more customers would
seek FIT arrangements as group trips.
The spokesman for Mountain Travel/Sobek amplified this
assertion, adding that families and groups will increasingly seek
customized trips as they seek adventure together.
"We've [already] seen a nice increase in this area. For example,
we've had a couple of families who have blocked entire departures
of our Galapagos program," he said.
He also predicted increased demand for trips mirroring those
taken by "true explorers" like Lewis and Clark, especially as
technology and gear make it less likely that such a trip would be a
client's last.
And, although the Internet is a fabulous platform for adventure
firms to offer educational and sales materials, the Mountain
Travel/Sobek spokesman scornfully dismissed speculation that
"virtual" trips could ever replace the thrill of real travel.
"To that, we say, garbage!" he said.