Baby Boomers are a kind of demographic interstate: everywhere they flow, they change the landscape.
Music is a good example. Boomers haven’t actually obliterated what was there before, but they certainly affected it. It’s also true for housing. And medicine and public policy.
Boomers have also redefined travel. In the 60s and 70s, they forged backpacker routes that spread across Europe and Asia, thanks in large part to guidebooks published by Lonely Planet sand Moon. That mode of travel and many of those routes (and probably some of the same seedy hostels) still thrive today.
Later, as the New York Times recently pointed out, Boomers drove the growth in swinging all-inclusive resorts like Club Med and, as they aged out of those, the luxury hotels of the 90s and later.
Even though Boomers are middle-aged and older now, that force remains strong in them. As we noted a few days ago, Boomers are the target market for river cruises, the fastest growing segment of the travel industry. And as the Times says, “Whether it’s a yen for Wi-Fi in the Serengeti or a disdain for bus tours, boomers’ latest needs, whims and aspirations are determining 2013’s large and small vacation trends.”
So the travel industry wants to make us happy. Intuitively, it feels like there can never be enough of that…that obscene and slavish attention to our needs and whims. “Another round of Irish whiskey please, and let’s change up the oils for this afternoon’s post-swim massage.” Except—and this is key—many Boomers don’t travel to have our whims catered to. We travel because we want to be exposed to new ideas, new vistas, new challenges, new satisfactions. We are leaving the bubble because we want to leave the bubble.
The Times story catches some of that, emphasizing that Boomers want hotels and side trips that capture the local color. No bus tours. Unique experiences. All that is good, but it seems contradictory: how do you organize and market something unique? How do you ensure local color when the hotel is vetted to ensure that it meets Boomers somewhat exacting standards.
Face it: Travel is most likely to be truly unique and memorable is when something goes off the rails a bit, when the plan falls apart and you are thrown out of the comfort zone and into a misadventure. And, though it isn’t always pleasant, when you get your pants leg caught in the gears of a place.
So travel industry, here is another aspiration to consider: do not let us dominate the landscape. Ignore our petty demands and especially our whims. Mostly we live in a pretty nicely appointed comfort zone. It’s a splendid place to come home to, but it’s a little dull. That’s why we leave it.
Photo: Jamaica, the gem of the tropics. Lithograph by Thos. Cook & Son, New York, 1910. Via Wikimedia Commons.
