The Outdoor Adventure Trend

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MARKETING EXPERIENCES:
ROUGHING IT: The Outdoor Adventure Trend

By Dennis A. Marzella

With sport utility vehicles and high-tech outdoor wear increasingly popular among American consumers, it is no surprise that research indicates many travelers are interested in putting some adventure into their vacation.

Forty percent of leisure travelers find hiking and outdoor adventure extremely desirable in a travel experience. Among these travelers, more than half are interested in remote, untouched destinations. Both statistics are drawn from the YP&B/Yankelovich Partners 1998 National Leisure Travel MONITOR.

Travelers are looking for new and exciting activities outside the spectrum of traditional mainstream vacation staples such as golf, tennis, and crowded theme parks. Furthermore, there was a significant increase in the share of naturalistic trips in the past year compared to the previous year.

"The old suntan-and-souvenir routine has given way to more involving and creative ways to experience the world. It's all part of a quest led by Baby Boomers for healthier forms of travel and ways to escape from the urban rat race," said Joe Robinson, editor and publisher of Escape magazine. "Travel is no longer just a way to blow money in duty-free shops and vegetate on beaches; it's about getting off your butt to discover the world and yourself."

Why the interest in getting away from it all? The National Leisure Travel MONITOR supports travelers' hunger for novelty and change. Sixty-nine percent of pleasure travelers who are interested in hiking/outdoor adventure felt a need for new experiences, and 37 percent wished they lived in an earlier age of adventure, romance, and mystery.

There is real opportunity for resorts and destinations to profit from the consumer interest by evolving their retailing to reflect the local outdoor activities. The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Colorado, for instance, created a separate profit center based solely around local fly-fishing. According to Dennis Lesko, vice president of marketing for The Broadmoor, "Guest comments drove us to get an on-property Orvis store, Sporting Classics,' that handles everything from providing fishing guides and equipment to selling a variety of clothing and merchandise. Many times, guests will go on these trips, try the equipment, and like it so much that they go back to the store and buy the gear to take home with them."

Consumer demand has led Avis to feature sport utility vehicles (SUVs) at many major airports across the nation, expanding its market well beyond ski destinations.

"Nationally, we had a utilization rate of approximately 60 percent in 1996 for SUVs. In 1997, that number increased to the high 70s," said Kevin Danaher, director of marketing programs for Avis.

What specific activities do these adventurers want? According to the National Leisure Travel MONITOR, more than half of the pleasure travelers took naturalistic trips (e.g., hiking, climbing, beaches, lakes, snow skiing and adventure/outfitter trips) in the past year.

Outdoor adventure tours are not just for landlubbers. More than one-half of leisure travelers interested in hiking and outdoor adventure are considering a cruise during the next two years, according to the National Leisure Travel MONITOR. Their needs and interests have created viable business niches for creative tour operators such as Costa Rica-based Temptress Adventure Cruises, a pioneer in soft adventure cruises in Central America. "Our itineraries include cruises to remote, natural habitats where passengers can participate in guided tours through native village encampments, hike through primary and secondary forests, and enjoy various water sports in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea," said Sandra Jofre, vice president of sales and marketing for Temptress. "We developed the soft adventure cruising concept in Costa Rica seven years ago and utilized our success to expand our cruises into Belize, Guatemala, and Panama."

Even "multipurpose" travelers those who combine leisure time with a business meeting/conference are looking for more than just the old mixture of graphics in the morning and golf in the afternoon.

Houston, Texas-based Benchmark Hospitality, Inc., one of the nation's leading resort and conference center management companies, has noticed more adventure creeping into the creative requests from meeting planners.

"To keep up with modern team-building trends, we offer everything from white-water rafting and mountain biking at the Resort at Squaw Creek in Lake Tahoe to organized paint-ball wars in the country, 30 miles from the Woodlands Executive Conference Center and Resort in Texas," said Dennis Layer, vice president of sales and marketing for Benchmark Hospitality. "Golf and tennis may exclude those who don't know how to play, but everyone can enjoy the excitement of being pelted by a fast-moving paint ball."

Even product marketers have recognized the growing consumer interest in spicing up their lifestyle. The Stroh Brewery's Old Milwaukee Light, for instance, is going beyond its traditional fishing and hunting promotions with a "Taste for Adventure" sweepstakes (Aug. 1 to Oct. 31). Instead of a tackle box or hunting cap, consumers may win a white-water rafting vacation, a trip to a race-car driving school, or a stint at air-combat pilot school.

According to the YP&B/Yankelovich Partners 1998 National Leisure Travel MONITOR , 39 percent of Baby Boomers*, 45 percent of Xers*, and 25 percent of Matures* found hiking and outdoor adventure extremely/very desirable. Boomers are the growth group of the future and there is a great possibility that we will see an increase in the volume of people taking this type of trip.