The new small group trips & non-touristy travel initiative dubbed YOLO (You Only Live Once) World Travel was humming along – a few super fun trips each year full of smiles, laughs and adventure. And all was good. However, there seemed to be an opportunity to improve the travel experience. While all of our trips went well, as they were high quality and well-planned. One of the insights from the initial days with YOLO World Travel was that it might be better to have people travel together who are in the same general age bracket.
We (in the early days) and just about all other companies are really one size fits all – people of all ages from college kids to retirees and all ages in between on the same trip. Sometimes there were wide-variations in age, but it was no big thing. It really was only when comparing these trips to some of our other trips with similarly aged travelers that the difference in group dynamics was noticeable. There were definite advantages to traveling with others in the same age bracket.
When travelers go on trips with other similarly aged travel companions, there is an exponential increase in the quality of the trip. When you travel with us, you start out with a thoughtful, well-planned itinerary and great travel destination, and then your experience is amplified with a cohesive group of similarly aged travel companions, which means heightened fun & laughs and deeper camaraderie.
At a minimum, you find yourself with new, regular travel buddies who you enjoy traveling with and can always count on to go on trips. Yay! More commonly, friends are discovered and these new amazing friendships continue way beyond the trip. Believe me when I tell you, when you see this or experience it yourself, you’ll really understand & fully appreciate why the experience is absolutely priceless.
That was the idea - combine the core travel philosophy of responsible, non-touristy, small group travel with trips targeted to travelers of the same age bracket to improve from a good experience to a great experience.
Travelers in the Generation X age bracket were the focus since I was a Gen Xer myself. And as a member of the target audience, I’d know the kind of travel that resonates with them – non-touristy, high-quality, small group trips with thoughtful, well-planned itineraries that support responsible travel principles to interesting yet affordable travel destinations where you see AND learn about the communities you are visiting. And Generation X travel that leans towards active vacations, adventure travel, and off the beaten path trips.
Gen Xers were also a good age bracket to focus on as, relatively speaking, they tend to be more in need of finding others like themselves to travel with.
They include those who got married many years ago and just didn’t have the time, money, energy, or particular interest in traveling given their stage in life and its related priorities. But now things have changed. They are empty-nesters and/or divorced and are interested in re-connecting with others like themselves – similar aged who like to travel and be out & about experiencing and enjoying life.
There is also another contingent of Gen Xers – those who have never been married with their ongoing struggle to find others like themselves who can and want to travel because seemingly everyone they know is married with a family and are unavailable as travel companions.
An important note is that our definition of Gen X is not wrapped around the axel on specific ages and birth dates, rather it’s about the mindset of an adventurous, independent, friendly spirit.
We find that we mostly end up doing travel for 40 somethings and travel for 50 somethings. However, our travelers easily range from the 30s, many who describe themselves as old souls who prefer to hang with a bit older crowd, to folks in their low 60s who are young at heart and bored with their peers but fit perfectly with our Gen X group.
YOLO World Travel transformed into Gen X Travel Club to meet Gen-X travel needs. Rather than be a general travel company that caters to all, we refined the focus to a particular age bracket. This specialization allows us to provide a more custom, personal travel experience that matches the needs, preferences and interests of this particular demographic group – “Generation X.” However, under YOLO World Travel, we still offer custom trips (e.g. for a family trip etc) as well as any of our current & past Gen X Travel itineraries.
