Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Thematic (theme based) Tourism

How often have you heard yourself say “I need a vacation from my vacation”. While planning trips, most people schedule a lot of activities to do, a lot of places to see, they want to get to all the "must see" places, to all the artifacts in all the museums. The trip begins to feels more like a marathon as opposed to a vacation. As a consequence both the trip planning and the trip itself become overwhelming.

As I posted in one of my earlier blogs, I am a big proponent of theme based vacations. If you travel with a theme, I really feel, that it increases the chances of you having a better time. The hard part is figuring out a theme, a focus or a special niche for your trip.

The first step is determining your travelling companions. Second step is determining what you all enjoy the most, or what you all want to see or do on that particular trip. Most of the time its this second step that is the hardest part. Different people inevitably want to do different things. Once your theme is determined, rest is easy. Schedule your activities around this central theme and whatever does not fit the theme is superfluous. If you find yourself with extra time on your trip...well… did you read my post on serendipity. As I say..the best memories are often the ones you cannot plan. So if you do find some extra time on your hands, go discover something, go off the beaten path, make a special memory.

Some suggested themes:


  • Aboriginal tourism (also Tribal tourism and Native American tourism)
  • Adventure tourism (usually outdoors)
  • All Boys trips (often fishing, motorbiking)
  • Ancient History Tourism (e.g. travel to Pharaoh Egypt, Mayan ruins, Andes etc.)
  • Architecture tourism
  • Backpack tourism (or Backpacking )
  • Battlefield tourism
  • Beach tourism
  • Business tourism (or Business travel)
  • Celebrity tourism
  • Community Based tourism (or Community Supported tourism)
  • Cruise tourism
  • Culinary tourism
  • Disaster tourism
  • Nature Ecotourism (or Eco-tourism)
  • Educational tourism
    Ethnic tourism
  • Event tourism (or Special Event tourism)
  • Extreme tourism (extreme sports)
  • Geopark Tourism or Geo tourism (geology-based includes volcanoes, hot springs)
  • Girlfriend Getaway (all female trip)
  • Group Travel
  • Golf tourism
  • Grief tourism (related to Thana-tourism)
  • Heritage tourism
  • Historical tourism
  • Honeymoon
  • Incentive travel (gift vacations for employees)
  • Island tourism
  • Medical tourism (Health or Wellness Tourism)
  • Museum tourism
  • Meetings, Conventions, Conferences and Exhibitions
  • Nightlife tourism (also Entertainment tourism)
  • Pre historic tourism (trip to pre historic sites, also ancient history tourism)
  • Photo Tourism (Photography tourism)
  • Religious tourism ( Pilgrimage)
  • Reunion tourism
  • Genealogy related tourism
  • Rural tourism
  • Second Home tourism (to a Vacation property)
  • Sex tourism
  • Shopping tourism
  • Space tourism
  • Sports tourism (pursue a specific sport including marathons, triathlons, etc.)
  • Sun, Sand and Surf tourism
  • Thanatourism (death related tourism)
  • Urban tourism
  • Visit Friends, Family and Relatives
  • Vinyard Tourism
  • Volunteer tourism (or Volunteer travel)
  • Walking vacations (or Walking trips)
  • War tourism
  • Water / SCUBA tourism
  • Winter (Sports) tourism

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Travel in a recession

So you really enjoy travelling but the dollar is plummeting in value. Do you stop travelling? Some of us cannot. It is almost like an addiction. We can’t stop exploring this beautiful world a bit at a time. There are five things we do (and so can you) to plan your next trip without pinching pennies or worrying about emptying your kids education fund.

ONE: Identify destinations where the dollar is strong. While US dollar is weak against Euro and Pound, travelling in areas where Dollar is still strong such as within US, Central and Southern Americas is highly attractive. If you ever wanted to visit Hawaii, Alaska, Maine, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, just to name a few, now is a great time to consider these places. If you have the time, places further away in Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe are great destinations.

TWO: Use airline frequent flier miles. Almost all credit card companies these days give you rewards or points for a specific airline carrier. If you have miles or points that you can convert into mile awards, this is a great time to use those miles.

THREE: Prepay as much of your costs in U.S. dollars as you can. Instead of exchanging cash at the airport, and paying higher exchange rates and commissions, use your credit card or the ATM card to pay for your expenses. Use your ATM card to take out only the amount of cash you might need for a few days at a time.

FOUR: Use local or a small travel agent to plan your trip. Instead of using a large tour operator or luxury travel company, use a local or niche travel agent to create a personalized and perhaps a private itinerary at lower cost.

FIVE: Identify and create a themed experience for your trip. This will help focus your trip on the “must see” and help eliminate all the other extras. Many years ago, my husband and I went to Egypt. Both of us had just joined the professional workforce, so were short on cash. Instead of an all encompassing, luxury trip, we chose instead to focus only on the ancient Egypt and created a private itinerary with the help of a local travel agent. We saw all the ancient monuments, landmarks and artifacts, travelled exclusively in a private rail compartment and by car, and included a few highly unique but absolutely charming off the beaten path highlights to our trip such as a visit to the Valley of the Queens and High noon tea by the Nile river for an incredibly unique experience. As you can see we still rave about that trip. Since then we have travelled to Mexico, Italy, Costa Rica, India, Hawaii and many other places but there has always been a theme to our trips.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Serendipity and Travel

While I am a planner, I am a huge proponent of not planning down to the last meal to the last minute. I want people to be open to the wonders of the world and what they may find along the way. When ever I come across people who have returned from a recent trip, I always ask what was their most memorable part of the trip. Almost always, it turns out to be something they did not plan on their itinerary.

On our recent family trip to Costa Rica, an eco-adventure trip that included zip lining, whitewater rafting, rappelling, my favorite memory is spending an afternoon with my family on a small pristine beach in Dominical that we stumbled upon. This beach had two sea caves that connected the beach to the ocean creating a blow hole effect perfect for body surfing. We spent our afternoon on this cozy little place where the rainforest met the ocean water with nothing but a small sliver of sand in between, a stream meandering through the forest, hiking the muddy river and body surfing the caves. I can’t remember how we had planned to spend that time or if we had planned anything at all, but then that is .. Serendipity.

A wise man once said.. if you follow a path too closely you will miss the wonders that you may find along your way.

There was a village woman who walked 2 Kos (miles) each way to the river to bring water for her family’s daily needs. She used to carry two pots of water on her shoulders every day and even then the water was barely sufficient to meet the daily needs. One pot had a small hole in it. Every day by the time this woman reached home, the broken pot was almost half empty. One day her neighbor asked why do you always carry that broken pot ? The woman replied, most people look at the path along which they walk to the river, but I look at the beautiful flowers growing along that path, that my broken pot waters. Moral of the story, its not always the path that provides the most wonder but often the small things along that path.