Tags: travel advice, Richard Bangs, Jim Spanfeller, frugal travel, Johnny Jet, Steve Jermanok, Strategic Filmworks, honeymoon ideas
Earthquakes. Economic worries. Security lines and flight delays. It doesn’t take much to come up with all sorts of reasons not to travel.
But for those of us who can’t get enough of discovering other cities and landscapes, trying different foods, meeting new people…nothing can stop us. We crave the education that comes with going to new places and will continue to explore the globe every chance we get.
For this article, I spoke to several travel professionals to learn what they had to say about where travel’s going. This is what I found out.
Travel Experiences That Count.
"For too long, too many with means spent too much time accumulating more things, more data, more numbers in accounts,” explains Richard Bangs (pictured her e), the co-founder of Mountain Travel Sobek and producer and host of Adventures with Purpose. "What the last couple of years showed was how ephemeral these acquisitions are; how they can vanish in a beat, and nothing meaningful is left behind.”
As a result, Bangs says, “More and more folks are recognizing the enduring and transformational values in travel, and how they accumulate memories that will not slip away. Once traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers of the mind, ever accruing interest, always augmenting the bank of life.”
Food attracts.
Food has always been a huge part of the travel experience, but now —more than ever—entire trips are being designed around the culinary experience. UK-based Sudi Pigott, author of How to Be a Better Foodie tells us that travelers are seeking out experiential foodie holidays, i.e. learning how to make their own mozzarella or getting help with an olive oil harvest.
"Travelers are also increasingly singling out hotels and restaurants with a sound eco-sustainable policy,” adds Pigott. Places that “ideally grow as much of their own produce as possible or sourcing hyper-locally. At the more avant-garde, there’s a new movement Cook it Raw! which several mould-breaking chefs (including Albert Adria, Rene Redzepi, Alex Atala and Massimo Bottura) are spearheading. Besides using more uncooked, raw, ultra-seasonal foods, they are cooking dishes at low temperatures, using minimum energy.”
Travelers want adventure.
According to long time travel writer Steve Jermanok who has 1,000 articles to his credit and who blogs daily at ActiveTravels.com, even in the worldwide recession, “large adventure travel companies still managed to earn a nice profit in 2009. This is a strong sign that people are yearning for an authentic travel experience that involves adventure." For 2010, he sees “active travelers going beyond the big-name outfitters and heading straight to the source, guides who live and specialize in one region of the world.” For example, he says, “Self-guided biking trips in Europe, where a local bike store delivers maps and transfers luggage to the next night’s inn, is also on the upswing. We’re all trying to remain active at an affordable price.”
Celebrity Choices.
Dotson Rader, a contributing editor at Parade magazine who has profiled scores of celebrities over the years, has observed that many bol d-faced names are choosing to vacation in Morocco again. “Of course, Morocco was very hot in the 60s (think Truman Capote, Paul Getty Jr., Peggy Guggenheim), but now it’s attracting people again for a variety of reasons--its incredibly luxurious hotels and spas, the sun and Arabian experience, its proximity to Europe. It’s also very friendly and welcoming and one of the few Muslim countries a gay person can visit comfortably.” On top of that, Rader says, “They also know how to treat celebrities and tend to wink at naughtiness by the famous or wealthy westerners.”
La Mamounia, Marrakech, Morocco
It’s not just the famous locales.
Matt Gross, who writes the Frugal Traveler for The New York Times, points out that travelers are choosing to go places that are famous locales in themselves, but also portals to undiscovered areas. For example, “You can go to Hanoi and Saigon in Vietnam, but also explore the lesser-known towns of the Mekong Delta.” He adds that “India is another place that has its portals, but also secret little places to explore.”
Travel Inexpensively.
People are getting very creative in ways to save money. According to John E. DiScala (a.k.a. Johnny Jet), who travels 150,000 miles a year as the founder/owner of JohnnyJet.com (a money-saving website for travel), there are lots of last-minute deals all over the place  but there are even bigger cost-cutters to be found. One just needs to be creative and do a bit of research.
"Consumers should look at all their options and possibly make an adventure out of it. Nonstop flights are great for business travelers but leisure travelers should entertain a random route--especially if it's much cheaper."
For example, “A couple of years ago, I was in London and needed to get to Bangkok. I found a great deal on an airline I had never heard of to a destination I had never been to. It was Etihad Airways, flying to Abu Dhabi. I saved about 50 percent of the price of a nonstop flight and got to spend the night in Abu Dhabi. What a great city and now it’s in the process of becoming a world-renowned cultural destination with the construction of the first museum outside of Paris to attach its name to the Louvre and a Guggenheim museum designed by Frank Gehry.”
Travelers are giving back.
Of course, some of the most memorable experiences are those that are shared. Jorie Butler Kent, Vice Chairman of Abercrombie & Kent adds that “As travel increasingly becomes about the things money cannot buy—shared experiences and treasured memories—more and more of our guests want to make a personal connection and a positive contribution to the places they visit.”
In response to their requests, Abercrombie &Kent has created a website devoted to philanthropy where they showcase ways to get involved, either through travel or giving donations to organizations making a difference in the communities where they operate. Nice to know that 100 percent of your donation goes directly to support the project you specify.
Romance on the road.
When it comes to honeymoons, “Regardless of the current economic  climate, newlyweds are still spending on travel,” says Jacqueline Gifford , the travel editor of Bride’s magazine. “Followers of Brides on Facebook recently told us via a poll which parts of their honeymoon budget they weren’t willing to cut, and 25% said they wouldn’t compromise on their honeymoon.”
Travel information comes to you.
If you’ve ever sat down to plan a trip on the internet, you know it can take days, even weeks to wade your way through the various websites to get the information you need. That’s likely to change. Forbes.com’s former CEO and president, Jim Spanfeller, now founder and CEO of The Spanfeller Media Group, points out that with online developments, “The travel information that is relevant to your needs will find you as opposed to you finding it.”
Hmmm….let’s imagine what that means. I guess it's a bit like Amazon.com, which tells you what books you might be interested in ordering next, based on the books you've purchased in the past. I suppose I could turn on my computer and be greeted with a message like this:
Good morning, Susan!
You might want to start thinking about where you should go for summer vacation. It’s just five months away.
You just were in Europe, so how about heading south, maybe Chile or Peru. Brazil? It’s been years since you even stepped foot on the South American continent. Five years to be exact.
Looks like you’ve got enough in savings to do this, Susan, and…it is a big birthday this year, all the more reason to celebrate. Here are some travel companies that can help plan the trip…Bon Voyage!
Okay…I can see that happening. Sure. And, I’m okay with that. Anything, absolutely anything that helps me plan my next trip is fine with me.
--Susan Farewell
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