Forbes Traveler just recently announced several new lists including the Forbes Traveler 400 (of top 400 hotels around the world), 14 Annoying Hidden Hotel Fees, and America´s Cheesiest Restaurants. Perhaps the most timely of these lists however, is the one entitles Top 10 Dumb Travel Trends. Being in the hotel industry we are inundated consistently with many of the following trends, and we have to say, “well done Forbes!” These are, in fact, dumb travel trends and we really wish people would refrain from the babycation, edu-fun-cations, and mancations also…
- Bucket Lists
- The Everything-cation
- Pro-creation-cations
- Gadget Mania
- Edu-fun-cations
- Scent Marketing
- Babymoons
- On Board Celebrities (cuise industry)
The following is an excertpt from the entire article- “Take the curious case of the -cation. Nowadays, banal trips are being arbitrarily re-branded by folks with an affinity for suffixes. Men trekking to Las Vegas for some sinful R&R are now on a mancation. Heading to a nearby hotel or museum has become a money-saving staycation. They’ve even dragged your mother in it—beleaguered ladyfolk can head west to Wickenburg, Arizona’s Giddy Up Girls Getaway, where they’ll ride horses and yee-haw lustily on their momcation.
That’s not the only prepackaged mommy trend. To squeeze extra bucks from the maternity machine, weekend-getaway packages pull double-duty as babymoons. Parents-to-be can concoct names for imminent little ones while reclining at the rustic Buffalo River Lodge in Yellville, Ark., or popping chocolate-covered strawberries in between prenatal massages at the Westin in Baja California.
“Travel operators—and travel journalists, who are often just pitchmen for operators—want to communicate what experience you will be buying in an easy-to-comprehend two words or less,” says Thomas Kohnstamm, author of “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?” (and Forbes Traveler contributor). “People are purchasing a fixed experience rather than traveling for travel’s sake.”
I highly encourage you to read the article along with the other lists.
Bucket Lists
Man-Cations
Pro-Creation-Cations
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