Coolcations – USA NEWS LIVE

Coolcations, solo travel and other hot tourism trends – The Mercury News

enzo2go — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 03:11:37 +0000

Today's travel trends reflect where persons are traveling, who they’re traveling with, and what they need to do on a visit.

“People are taking more trips and talking about it with their friends,” said Randy Yaroch, CEO and owner of The Travel Society in Greenwood Village. “Then when you add social media to the mix, it really emphasizes the way people decide where to travel next.”

Knowing what the trends are will be reassuring and provoking – resembling for ladies traveling alone – or possibly lead to creating different decisions – resembling deciding to avoid traditional Western European favorites due to the crowds.

Yaroch's Travel Society is a member of Virtuoso, a world network of agencies specializing in luxury and experiential travel with 1000’s of travel advisors. A travel advisor is comparable to the travel agents of the past, but offers more advice and insight.

“Travel agents were just taking orders, but in today's world they have become professional advisors, more like advisors who exclusively curate travel itineraries,” Yaroch explained. While travel advisors typically work with premium to ultra-luxury clients, Yaroch says they may also assist with more basic trips like booking an all-inclusive package and transportation to and from a resort.

A tour guide briefs a gaggle of tourists in front of the National Theater in San Jose, Costa Rica, on February 6, 2024. The National Theater is a constructing with historical architecture that was accomplished in 1897. It is taken into account one of the beautiful buildings within the state's history and crucial architectural jewel of the town of San Jose. Tourism represents one among the predominant sources of income for the Costa Rican economy. (Photo by Ezequiel Becerra/AFP via Getty Images)

When working with clients, Yaroch and his team concentrate to trends and consider how this information will be used to offer their clients the most effective trip possible.

Virtuoso recently published a travel trends report and uncovered some interesting insights:

Domestic travel dominates in fall 2024, but international travel continues to interrupt records: Canada saw a 168% year-over-year increase and Japan saw a 160% increase.
In some hotspots, the weather is cooling down a bit, so this fall might be the best time to travel to Napa, California. Amsterdam or Taormina, Sicily.
Interest in the vacation or “festive” season continues to see interest in Mexico, Hawaii, Anguilla and Costa Rica, with countries resembling St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic and Grenada seeing a double to triple increase. Although Maui, Hawaii saw a decline in travelers following the devastating fires in 2023, there’s a 23% increase in fall bookings and a 32% increase for the vacation season.
These ultra-luxury travelers search for expedition cruises, exotic destinations like Fiji or Thailand, and African safaris. This group is motivated to travel for celebrations and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
Have you heard of “coolcations”? According to Virtuoso, it is a trend of visiting colder climates in the summertime (think Canada or Northern Europe), which saw a 44% increase. Traditionally warmer places like Greece saw a really slight decline in visitor numbers.
While women traveling alone will not be a brand new trend, each Virtuoso and Yaroch have recognized it and noted that it has spread from baby boomers to all generations. “They are looking for like-minded people to travel with,” Yaroch said. “They travel to all continents and seek adventure travel or gentle adventures such as expedition cruises.”
It's not only that folks need to travel off the beaten path, but additionally they attempt to avoid places that suffer from overtourism. This means they seek travel within the “off season” or off-peak, for instance traveling to South America as an alternative of Europe. “Service will be better in the off-season and prices will go down,” Yaroch said.
Although Instagram and other social media platforms can have an influence on travelers, Virtuoso's report found “a notable shift from a focus on a travel to-do list to an emphasis on feelings while traveling,” they noted found that 77% of travelers prioritize curiosity and exploration.

Closer to home, the Colorado Tourism Office commissions a report yearly and learned that there was a rise in visitors to Colorado in 2023 with 93.3 million visitors – a 4% increase from 2022. Other highlights included:

A ship sails along a canal in Amsterdam on April 12, 2024. (Photo by John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)

38% of holiday makers to Colorado in 2023 came over family and/or friends, with only 12% citing nature as the first purpose of their trip.
However, 60% of holiday makers said that outdoor activities were crucial activity (if not their purpose), 58% entertainment, 40% culture and 30% sport. Surprisingly, shopping was a top activity at 23% versus mountain climbing/backpacking at 16%.
The overwhelming majority of holiday makers returned – 85% of overnight guests were repeat visitors in 2023 and 62% visited within the last 12 months.

Their report doesn't show which specific cities or towns are seeing more visitors, but Dean Runyan Associates' annual report “The Economic Impact of Travel in Colorado” offers some insight: Denver saw the best spending, up 4.8%.

“Travellers choose Denver because it offers the best of both worlds,” said Justin Bresler, vp and chief marketing officer at Visit Denver. “The city is an urban destination in its own right, and the appeal of all there is to do in the nearby Rocky Mountains makes us an even more compelling choice.”

Originally published: October 2, 2024 at 12:09 p.m

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Coolcations had one other great summer. Listed here are the places travelers have visited

enzo2go — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 00:50:16 +0000

Extreme temperatures are causing travelers to hunt cooler destinations. And there’s a term for the trend: “coolcations.”

Heat waves — whose frequency, duration and intensity are increasing, in line with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — are disrupting people's vacation goals, especially through the hot summer months.

“When we think of vacations, beaches and tropical getaways often come to mind,” an Expedia spokesperson told CNBC Travel. “But coolcations are all about choosing destinations where temperatures are more moderate and where you pack a light sweater instead of a sun hat.”

According to Expedia, flight searches to Lapland, Finland increased 705% from January to June 2024. The online travel agency said flight searches also come to Canada, particularly to Banff (65%) and Lake Louise (55%), its data showed.

Home rental website Vrbo reported that cooler places were among the many 40 most booked destinations this summer, including Breckenridge, Colorado; White Mountains, New Hampshire; and Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania.

California resident Stephanie Greitzer said she planned a family trip to Whistler this summer.

“We live in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, where we experience extreme heat for most of the summer, reaching highs well over 100 degrees,” she said. “We want to be comfortable when we travel, to experience everything a city has to offer and to take a break from the extreme heat at home.”

Southern Europe is sizzling

European cities like Rome and Madrid top the list of hottest summer destinations. But the rising temperatures in southern Europe are hitting the summer travel season hard.

This summer, Italian authorities issued heat warnings for 12 cities as temperatures reached triple digits in some areas.

“Throughout the summer, from June to August, temperatures in southern Italy averaged 3 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit above historical averages,” Jason Nicholls, senior international forecaster for weather website AccuWeather, wrote in an email to CNBC. “From July to August there were several heat waves across Italy and the Balkans.”

As a result, Northern Europe is experiencing a boom in tourism.

“Northern Europe as a whole has really experienced a resurgence in the last two years,” says Delphine Combes, product manager at travel agency Scott Dunn. “Norway has become one of the five most popular travel destinations in Europe for us, rising eight places compared to 2022.”

She said Scott Dunn is adding more summer travel options to Finland, Sweden and Switzerland to satisfy increased demand.

“These are destinations where, until recently, we only offered winter and holiday products,” Combes said.

According to Visit Finland, foreign visitors made greater than 4.8 million trips to the Nordic country within the last 12 months. The variety of registered overnight stays abroad increased by 9% from January to June 2024 in comparison with the previous 12 months, with most visitors coming from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States and the Netherlands, it said.

Book early

Combes had a suggestion for American travelers on the lookout for a cooler vacation.

“Be open to traveling to places where Americans are not the main tourists,” she said. “Unlike the Mediterranean, many coolcation spots are not crowded with Americans. This creates an interesting atmosphere that perhaps allows for a more cultural experience.”

Combes also recommends booking early. “Many cooler, less visited destinations have fewer quality hotels. Growing demand is beginning to outstrip hotel inventory, so prices will either be exorbitantly high or there will be no availability if you wait until the last minute.”

Sara Steele-Rogers and her husband, who currently live to tell the tale the Caribbean island of Anguilla, booked a visit to Estonia in September to beat the warmth.

“It's always hot in the Caribbean, so cooler weather destinations are more attractive than ever to experience fall,” says Steele-Rogers. “Little things like being able to walk distances without sweating through my clothes are things you don’t miss until they’re gone.”

image credit : www.cnbc.com