Rarely I like to say “I told you so…”, because it normally involves an advice I gave and somebody didn’t follow, in spite the money they paid to me to get this consultation. Or it is my husband for another reason – you know how it goes…
This time I am happy that Nat Geo Traveler confirms my forecast by choosing the “50 Tours of a Lifetime”. Here it is why (click on the picture for bigger size. Will open in a separate window):
As you can see from the table above, 32 out of the 50 featured trip are cultural tourism trips. From them, National Geographic Traveler classifies 22 as cultural, the rest are classified as cultural by the tour operator who organizes them. As I underlined, cultural and creative tourism, are recession resistant. In the 2009 edition of “50 Tours of a Lifetime”, National Geographic lists 22 trips. If we apply their criteria, there still be an increase of 100% over the last year.
It is normal for National Geographic, a global company, to list trips all around the world. Still, emerging destinations are predominant with the most exotic taking leading role, as I predicted in the 2010 Cultural Tourism Trends. As per the geography of these destinations, I “struck gold” with 10, out of 50 – not too bad, view the fact that 22 were named “cultural tourism destinations”.
Creative tourism take a significant place, view it is a new approach to cultural tourism. It is often mixed with other activities – volunteering, cultural travel, etc. Which proves another of my statements: “The consumer demand for authentic experiences and more “to do at the destinations” will pressure change not only the geographies of the cultural tourism, but also the relationships local community- visitors.” That is why many of the tours winning the prestigious label of “50 Tours of a Lifetime” offer interaction with local people, traditions and cultures, independently the main reason for travel: adventure, wildlife, active or volunteering tours.
Europe got it right by offering tours off of the bitten pad and big city cultural tourism. The tour choice shifted, as forecasted to niche sub-destinations: Italy with Piedmont wine tours, which are more cultural experience then typical wine tasting, Pompeii with archaeological tours – another trend of niche tourism that I predicted, etc.
The most surprising was my comment on religious tourism: from the only one religious trip, among the 50 of National Geographic Traveler, was my certainty that Spain with its Camino de Santiago will take its deserved place among pilgrimage trips.
As per the business of cultural tourist, I predicted correctly that small, concierge type agencies would satisfy better the shifting cultural traveler profile towards personalized, responsible travel. Thirty-nine out of 50 trips are operated by travel companies that have in place sustainable, eco- or responsible travel policy. Thirty-three are operated by small travel agencies, offering customizable and personalized, individually designed trips with flexibility in travel dates.
P.S.
While preparing this blogpost, I went and read about all 50 tour operators | agencies, their tours, destinations, their policies, explored their websites and decided to name my favorites among the National Geographic choices:Best cultural tourism agency: Wilderness Travel: for its rich choice of destinations, a wide array of experiences offered to travelers and user-friendly website, full of information and possibilities for customization of trips.
Best creative tourism agency: Cultural Crossroads (http://culturalcrossroads.com) for its highly customized tours and unique creative activities, in addition to incredible insider access to many places and people that other agencies cannot even dream.
Best niche tourism agency: Andante Travels, UK – for archaeological tourism. In addition to cover almost all possible interests in archaeology travel – from amateur lovers of archaeology to professional researchers, the website of the agency is the only one that offers a search engine that permits the user to search by historic period, in addition to destination, date and other normal travel search criteria. They are the only agency, which gives back directly to the archaeological sites, which can apply for a award, independently if the agency has a tour to the site or not.
Best personal discovery: Go Native America - for promoting tribal cultural tourism, preserving the identity and authenticity of the Native Americans across North America, and in the same time providing exciting, educative and spiritual tours.
If you want compare yourself both documents, for the National Geographic Traveler “50 Tours of a Lifetime” click here and for Cultural realms “Cultural tourism in 2010: trends, destinations and business outlook” click here.
If you want to name your favorite tour operator | travel agency (and say why), please post a comment here, after the blog. Needless to say that if you work for some of these travel company, you cannot name it – it is logical, isn’t it?
Photo: Basket weaving lessons in Jordan
Courtesy of Carrie McDougall, with special permission for Cultural Realms
