B.C. has grown as an adventure travel destination

Travel can transform and inspire us. It can also provide a means of renewal and motivation in our personal life. Our work, our relationships or both. For a lot of people, the process, the preparation, is half the fun. Over the last 15 years the store has been around, we spend a bit of time with customers suggesting destinations for people to travel to that fit in with their vacation time, the time of year, the length of time available, as well as their likes and dislikes.

Travel has changed. A lot of people still travel just for the joy of it but it has also become more purposeful for a lot of people - a means to an end. Lately, Baby Boomers have been coming into the shop to get information to help plan trips with one or both of their aging parents. Or parents are taking their sixteen and seventeen-year-old children on one last trip before the kids move out. A lot of people come in for information regarding working or volunteering overseas.

For the package tour industry, the first noticeable trend was to ‘Adventure Travel’. People demanded more than the traditional package tours. They wanted to travel closer to the ground. Experience more. Cost, always a consideration, was secondary to the experience. There are more and more operators, with more and more choice as to what to do. Overland tours through Africa, South America, and Asia to a lesser degree blossomed. Lots of people wanted to travel but they didn’t feel comfortable to do it alone. The small group tour business was born and adventure travel was its theme. All sorts of niche markets developed. Small operators realized that they didn’t have to have 40 people booked in order to live their dream and to make some money on the side. They just had to cater to the specialized travel market - river rafting, cooking schools, art appreciation tours, dude ranches, bird-watching, whale watching, archeological tours, architecture tours, wine tasting, bicycling, walking, photography, etc. added to the mix

Some individuals wanted more as well. They didn’t just want to sit on a beach any longer but they also didn’t want to go on a bus with 30 other people. They travelled more often but on shorter getaways.

In addition to group tours, some countries noticed the trend that was happening and started to promote their countries as adventure travel destinations and with ‘eco-friendly’ themes. A number of them come easily to mind: Costa Rica, Belize, New Zealand, and of course, British Columbia.

As travel took off in the late 80's, you could literally do anything you wanted and low and behold, there was a book to tell you how and where and when to do it. If you wanted to know the best surf spots in Asia, tour the Gothic cathedrals of France, follow in the footsteps of Agatha Christie, find the perfect ashram in India, climb a volcano in Ecuador, rejuvenate yourself at the most perfect spa, information was readily available. There was literally a book for everyone’s tastes.

This trend then spawned an explosion in travel of all kinds. Everyone was travelling and not just to the usual destinations. Anywhere was fair game and at times, it seemed that the world was going to be overrun with tourists and they were going to destroy the thing that most of us who travel want most. To be apart from the things that remind us of home, to be doing something so far removed from what we experience in our daily lives, to create memories that sustain us when we are home.

We all, still want to have unique travel experiences and it is still possible providing our expectations don’t get the better of us. Koh Samui in Thailand in the seventies was a remote and totally undeveloped paradise. Today, it is definitely developed but that does not mean it does not still have an allure for some people. Two years ago, I went back to India and was surprised that it hadn’t seemed to have changed much over the last twenty years. Sure there were subtle changes like bottled water was readily available - a good thing, clay cups were no longer used to serve chai on trains, now it was a plastic cup - a bad thing and that there was way more foreigners around but it didn’t seem to matter. It was still a great trip. I saw things and had experiences that will remain with me forever.

There are still places that haven’t been discovered. If you want to get off the beaten track, you still can. If you haven’t been to Thailand or Vietnam, they are still exotic. If you want culture and history, Europe is still around. Travel is what you make it. It is still a trip!

Dwight Elliot is owner of The Travel Bug in Kitsilano. For more information call 604-737-1122.