Skift Take
Despite all the marketing interest in reaching millennials, it may be the baby boomer generation that is the most likely business source for travel advisors. It’s a high-spending demographic that values interaction with those they can trust.
For David and Carol Porter, newly retired and happily hitting the road on global adventures, the stock market crash of 2008 put them on an unexpected detour. With their savings diminished, the former mortgage brokers launched new careers as co-owners of The Roaming Boomers, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based travel agency whose clientele is largely drawn from their own generation.
“We had started a travel blog with articles from our trips that drew thousands of followers, many of them asking us for advice and even to plan their travel,” said David Porter. “We had thought travel agents were dead, but found it’s not so.”
The couple, who operate a home-based agency with no other staff, focus primarily on river cruises and small-ship ocean cruises. While they don’t charge fees for booking cruises, they do charge a $400 non-refundable fee for handling more customized trips.
Last year, The Roaming Boomers did $6 million in sales and is the number-two ranked agency for Viking River Cruises, and among Virtuoso’s top 20 agency affiliates, according to David Porter. In fact, a spokeswoman for Viking River Cruises said Roaming Boomers is the second largest Viking
