My colleague Carol Orsborn asked me last week if I would be using my recent trip to Cuba in my blog. I told her that I had not paid much attention to the Boomer marketplace in Cuba, and I didn't think visitors to this blog wanted a travelog (it was a great trip).
But Carol's question did made me recognize something I had not considered on the trip itself: our group perfectly illustrated the travel market among Vibrant Women over 50. Of the seven women over 50 in our group, three were divorced (one brought a boyfriend); one widowed; and three were married (with husbands). For 2 of the 3 married couples over 50, the women had driven the decision to make the trip.
These women with us were curious, indefatigable, and full of dollars to spend; in addition to the $4-5,000 each spent to be there, several bought art. (And a few even smoked Cuban cigars!) Some went to nightclubs after midnight. None complained about climbing stairs to visit an artist in his 9th floor studio. None had any concerns about visiting a country without good toilet paper. Each had read about Cuban history, politics and culture in advance.
Why did these women take this particular trip? First of all, because a mutual friend had coordinated it, and they liked knowing they would be among friends. But what they really liked was the assurance that it would be a well-organized way to learn about an unfamiliar and unique part of the world in good company. If they had wanted only a Caribbean vacation or only an educational experience, they could have had either for less. But they wanted both, and they made the most of it.
Taking this trip represented a way of taking charge of their own lives and their experience of the world that would have been either unthinkable or unavailable to their mothers. But does the market give them as many ways to do this as they'd like?
Carol and I are both going to be speakers at the Educational Travel Conference. next month. I look forward to sharing this story there and finding out whether that industry's research confirms what I saw in practice.
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- The stories we tell: Making meaning every dayEvery family, business and organization has its legends — and the stories we both remember and tell say a lot about what we value. Some people have what the philosophers call "a talent for meaning making."
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