Travel- Plan your trip with Boomeropia

Once I left the business and started a public relations firm, I noticed that there was a real lack in the advertising community in the way they looked at people over 50. The other thing that freaked me out, of course, when I turned 50 was becoming the recipient of all the information AARP sends you. I have the utmost respect for the organization, but you feel like they’re telling you you’re old once you start receiving their information. Some of us are not ready to face that. I feel like I’m still having fun, and I want that fun side of my life to be able to prosper. Part of enjoying that fun side comes from the fact that I’ve reached this milestone in my life and have a little more money and time to experience new and different things. The alternative would be to spend money and time on the things I was being targeted with through advertising – laxative ads, burial plots, and other negative things.

People kept calling me to book travel, and I continued somewhat of a travel agency on the side. It was becoming more than a sideline job, because people my age kept calling me. They really didn’t know where to go. The things they were seeing advertised were trips to Cancun for Spring Break. They were hearing nothing about trips that were conducive to them and trips they were really looking for. I felt this myself.

So I thought, “Why not combine the two things I know well - travel and public relations - and do something about it?” I originally planned to launch a magazine, but a friend of mine suggested that I first pursue a website. In my research, I found that 80% of travel is booked by people age 50 and over. This age group also controls 75% of the nation’s wealth. Yet, advertisers were not targeting them for those types of fun things I knew existed. The reason people kept calling me is because I gave them all these great travel options they knew nothing about.

BOOMER: What’s the main premise of the site?

Dahl: I wanted to give the well-known, and certainly the not-so-well-known, travel destinations a place to advertise their trips and their ideas. I created the site as a site of ideas, not a place for booking travel. We came up with the 30 categories that I thought were specific to my generation and within those categories I tried to give them ideas for fun trips.

Everyone thinks of bus tours and cruises as the only things people over 50 can choose from. We have those types of trips included on the site, but there are so many other things available.

BOOMER: Where do you get that information that is in the 30 categories?

Dahl: I get the ideas in each of the categories from research, personal experience, and the experiences of friends who travel frequently. I still keep my hand in many different travel circles and continue to get a lot of information from contacts around the world as a result. We do accept some sponsored content from travel destinations, but it must meet our needs and approval first. We only use reputable, proven content, and it must fit the lifestyle of our boomer users.

BOOMER: What are members of today’s generation demanding from travel destinations in way of creativity, amenities, and adventure?

Dahl: Our generation is so much more active. We are interested in things like vacations that allow us to volunteer and/or learn while we have fun and relax. One of our featured destinations offers workshops all over the world in the areas of painting, drawing, calligraphy, and bookmaking. Our site gives people the opportunity to pursue those things they’ve thought about but never acted upon. And you don’t have to spend a lot of time just see if you’re interested. That’s what we want to bring to the table. We provide the information, links to websites, and phone numbers to each destination. Users can then call their travel agent or book their own travel on the web – and do so after being informed for no charge. This site is all about choices.

BOOMER: What are your plans for the site as you move forward into the near future?

Dahl: It will continue to grow as we find out from people what they want. Some of the things I know from personal interest that people are requesting and wanting are things like contests and giveaways. Photography is such a big thing with travelers, and today’s digital cameras allow everyone to capture their trips in pictures. We’ll have people submit them to the site. We will expand and create a section for people to share their travel experiences with other users in a forum setting. We hope to add some video elements to the site.

Our users will help me evolve the site to make it what they desire it to be. I want to listen to what people have to say. So many people in our generation are well-traveled and well-educated in all aspects of travel. We hope to tap into that knowledge and experience.

Find out more at www.boomeropia.com