“We took Amtrak from Milwaukee out to Montana to start the trip,” she said. “That was fun, and we spent one night out there at Whitefish. I’d recommend that to anyone.”
Geersen said her travelers are sitting tight right now for international trips due to the economy both here and in Europe, but her bank is headed to Hawaii next spring.
“We’re going with CTN Travels,” she said. “We already have 54 signed up to go.”
The conversation then turned to younger travelers, girlfriend getaways and culinary trips, three of the more nontraditional areas our research touched on this summer.
“I think I can get some younger travelers on a Mediterranean cruise next October,” said Geersen. “I’m going to try. And we had a younger crowd go with us a while back to Las Vegas for NASCAR in Vegas. We took about 20 for a weekend out there including the race and a trip to Hoover Dam. They really enjoyed it.”
“My travelers are still mature,” said Dean. “I’m not seeing the baby boomers just yet. But I did take a New York trip that was entirely women because the men don’t care about shopping and the shows. And I took women to Atlanta for ‘Menopause the Musical.’”
“We call culinary trips ‘foodie tours,’” said Snitchler. “We do a lot of those as day trips. We’d have interest in longer culinary tours, I’m sure. We’re hoping to do Toronto as a women-only trip next year. And the majority of our travelers are older, but we are starting to see boomers as well. We give them more choices when they come along.”
“Our groups are still mostly mixed-gender,” said Geersen. “We’re doing some culinary things. We took a group over for the day to Chadron State College in Nebraska for their Taste of Home event. That was very popular.”