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Tauck Prepares for Full Launch of Tauck Culturious
Published on: December 11, 2008
As first reported in Travel Pulse last June, Tauck World Discovery’s new product line, Tauck Culturious, will launch in January, targeting active boomers who are “culturally curious.” The product is designed to provide an in-depth, immersive cultural experience in each destination and is the result of extensive market research conducted across the country over a period of several months with consumer and travel agent focus groups and online surveys. According to Tauck CEO Dan Mahar, “Culturious trips will typically be more regionally focused, explore a destination in greater depth, incorporate more dynamic, hands-on experiences, and provide more time for independent exploration.” Groups will be limited to around 20 guests. The target client is in the 45 to 65 age bracket.
According to Rick Baron, director of worldwide accounts, Tauck Culturious was “designed to meet a specific need in the marketplace that has not been previously adequately addressed.” The product targets active baby boomers who are seeking authenticity in travel, interactive experiences and depth of discovery. Tauck’s research shows that the segment will trade some measure of its customary creature comforts for authentic experiences. Like traditional Tauck products, the packages will include high-end accommodations, but will allow for a little more roughing it than previous Tauck programs. The itineraries will provide for more independent exploration. Though the programs may not be strenuous, they will be designed for clients who want to be mentally engaged, not passive observers.
For example, in the Tauck Culturious Provence program, clients will have the opportunity to kayak on the Sorgue River, create a picnic lunch with regional foods from a local outdoor market, take a two-hour stroll from Gordes to Roussillon, play the traditional Provencal game of boules, discuss French politics with a resident of Joucas, attend a tasting of Rhone wines led by a professional sommelier, learn about the life of painter Paul Cézanne from an art scholar and have a chance to create a painting of their own in Provence’s afternoon light.
The brand will launch with seven programs, including packages for Costa Rica, Croatia, Manitoba, Provence, Vietnam and Cambodia, Tuscany and Cinque Terre, and Peru, with more on the way. Culturious is Tauck’s first new brand launch since Tauck Bridges family journeys were introduced in 2003. Bridges rapidly became one of the company’s most popular product lines. Tauck is promoting the product as “a new kind of group travel” that “takes intimate groups of like-minded people on adventures that deeply engage in the cultures they are visiting.” The programs are “hands-on, totally immersive and physically active.” Arthur Tauck, chairman of the company, calls Culturious “a product for the future” and says it is targeted to a younger market than Tauck’s traditional tours.
The initial seven Culturious itineraries are: Provence, eight days including Aix-en-Provence, Gordes, Joucas, St. Remy, Arles and Avignon; Tuscany and Cinque Terre, eight days including Florence, Carrara, Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza and Lucca; Croatia, eight days including Dubrovnik, Cavtat, Peljesac, Korcula, Hvar, Brac and Split; Manitoba, seven days including Winnipeg, Churchill and Hecla Island; Costa Rica, eight days including San Jose, Poas, Bajos del Toro and Punta Islita; Peru, 12 days including Lima, Cuzco, Reserva Amazonica, Urubamba and Machu Picchu, and Vietnam and Cambodia, 14 days including Hanoi, Hue, Mekong Delta, Phnom Penh, Saigon and Siem Reap. For more information, call 888-840-1852 or visit www.tauckculturious.com.
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