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Tauck Survey—Short Trips
Tauck is soliciting input on travelers’ thoughts concerning shorter trips—as few as four (4) nights. They used Canada, Africa and Australia as examples.
The airfare alone would preclude me from taking such a short tour. I would consider a European short tour only if I could combine it with at least two (2) other short tours and only if the stays were in single cities. For example…Madrid>Porto>Lisbon.
I made my usual survey recommendation of a culinary tour, but apparently that doesn’t seem to generate much interest.
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Comments
Did you receive the survey via email?
I think shorter trips would be exhausting. There would be so much activity packaged into the trip in order to make it appealing. I would be interested only to piggyback with a 10 day to 2 week trip.
Yes, I received the e-mail this morning.
Yes. I got the email and took the survey. Said only if I could tag it onto the end of another trip in the same part of the planet. Air fare is too expensive for short trips these days, especially when so many Tauck customers like to fly business class.
They should stop trying to diversify. When Jennifer Tombaugh was online I asked about longer tours and they have no plans to do that
I combined two different one week trips together. You pay for the Tauck insurance as if it were just one trip. We had two days to ourselves in the middle before the second trip started. We were traveling 2 weeks in our own before these trips started. Essentially we were away a month and it flew by. Understand that the first day of every trip no matter how long or short is a travel day as well as the last day. For example, a one week trip is essentially only 5 days. It’s not worth it for me only to a one week trip with all the effort it takes.
Perhaps they are looking to attract a younger demographic (working) with limited time off. Short tours would give those who wanted what is essentially a long weekend an opportunity to explore a place in the US. In Europe it would be ideal for those who wanted to combine a tour with independent travel, for maybe a total of 7-14 days.
I got the email and said pretty much the same as the rest of you - that airfare is too expensive, jet lag sucks, and the benefits of back-to-back tours. In fact, I suggested given the benefits that they develop an online tool to help you find dates that would work. I understand that for those still working, a 1 week tour is all they could do so I have sympathy for those that need it. I also said that for a very short tour I'd prefer staying in the same hotel vs changing. Changing hotels burns up a fair amount of time.
I, too, responded to the e-mail survey saying that I had no interest at all in the shorter tours because of the need to amortize the airfare over more days.
I got the email, said the same things as posted here. What I want is more interesting experiences.
No interest in a culinary tour - I can find excellent ethnic restaurants in LA. No need to go half way around the world to experience French food (for example). I don't drink to any degree so wine tours are also wasted on me.
A good land tour of China would be of interest to me.
When I planned my back-to-back two different one week trip, I wants two trips that would sync together. When I called Tauck, they said, they have the software to synchronize the back-to-back trips we wanted to take. It was difficult to do it without their assistance. Nevertheless, it worked out very well.
I took the survey as well. Like everyone else, I said you can’t overcome the cost or body impact of travel for only a 4 day tour. So I don’t think they work oversees for a typical tour.
I said the only time I’d be interested in such a short event would be if it was associated with an event like the Super Bowl, Kentucky Derby, Masters Golf Tournament. Some event that is hard to get tickets to and you only want to spend 4/5 days at such an event.
I haven’t received the survey yet. I once again agree with Smiling Sam. Those of you you live on the East Coast really have an advantage. It's a hope skip and a jump over the pond to Europe - mere 5 hours (+ or -) We, on the other hand, who live in the beautiful west coast have to endure a grueling 5 extra hours flying across the country.
OurTravels34 - just wondering what kind of assistance was necessary from Tauck?
I didn't get the survey, either.
If you haven't done the servey, see if this gets you to the survey - https://www.research.net/r/B25D2SQ
I'm not sure this link will work so let me know if you were able to get there by clicking on it.
Check your spam. My internet provider thought it was a solicitation. I also did not support shorter trips. I agree with the amortization of the airfare and recovering from jet lag are two factors. A third consideration is a vacation that is sufficient in length to enjoy a real break from the office.
I took it and echoed many of the same points as British. Schedule small tours in such a way so one can, if desired, do back-to-back tours to make it a longer trip and amortize the to/from travel expenses and time better. But, a 5 day/4night tour is really just 3 "meaty" days of actual touring and not worth it, IMO. One of the questions IIRC was about whether there was a preference for staying in one hotel for the length of the short tour or in more than one hotel. Both have drawbacks like one and two night hotel stays vs longer bus trips if "anchored" at one hotel.
I also suggested they see what they could do about starting US river cruises and give ACL some competition. I know all about the Jones Act requirements (US built ships, US crews, etc) that would make this a big hurdle, but if they want to grow they should consider this if they have not already. Maybe buy ACL?????
Having said this, it was actually a pretty good survey and glad to see Tauck is reaching out to us and show us what they are considering.
Ourtravels. On the west coast, you have the advantage of being a lot nearer Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia etc etc, all places I have been going to for quite some time now. Europe is Europe, I like going but those countries generally do not wow me like others do because I know what I am going to get. So those of us on the East coast do not have an advantage over you.
I could see Tauck doing US river cruises. Remember they don’t own any of the ships, which is very clever of them, Certainly it must have saved them a fortune during the Pandemic not having to maintain all those idle ships. So I can’t see them ever wanting to take over ACL If they could find a company to make ships to their specifications which they could lease and not own like Scylla or partner with a company like Ponant, I’m sure they might do it.
Like I said, there is a time to stop diversifying too much. Improve and make superior the products you do have.
Personally I’m sad they seem to have no interest in some longer say three week tours apart from Australia and NZ and their one long river cruise that only goes a few times a year. To take back to back tours which they suggest, you have to get used to a new set of people etc which would be a pain. I’ve never done it but I understand it’s tricky to plan sometimes. One reason I now travel with a company too that has longer tours now I have the time to spend on them and certainly recently, now air fares are more expensive and airports a nightmare.
For some shorter trips make sense particularly if you employment dictates how you can take time off or if you want to combine two short tours, a short tour with a longer tour such as a river cruise... or even combine a short Tauck tour with a Backroads tour which typically are 6 days. What would be nice to see is optional pre or post tour extensions of 4 or 5 days that some other companies do. We by default usually will do this on our own for example we spent 3 full days in Florence before starting the Napls/Capri/Amafli tour.
It is insane to even consider a four day trip to Africa unless you are Prince Harry courting Meghan Markle. I only use Tauck for Africa. Europe and the US I can do on my own, and I have no further interest in Asia having spent three weeks in Vietnam. That was enough for me.
MikeH - your link worked. I filled it out and wrote basically the same things already mentioned.
First thing I did was check my spam folder and nothing there. Maybe it's because I am unsubscribed from most of Tauck's marketing emails.
I have found that these kind of emails can be spread out over several days before everyone gets them. But you could be right. BKMD. I’m certainly getting Tauck emails soliciting me to take tours when I never got any. It’s obviously the new management. We will be seeing ads on TV next. The Viking one drives me crazy.
They put a cookie on your computer so that you can only do it once on that computer. But if you've never done the survey, the link should get you there.
British: yes, the Viking TV ads drives me crazy too. You would be great on the TV really show, Destibation X! This is a fantastic dialogue. On another note, being from the west coast, I think more of us fly over to Europe instead of repeated trips to New Zealand, Australia or other parts of Asia.
Sandyfeet: I am also not a big fan of Asia and don’t need to go to the same destination twice when once was enough, except for Japan.
I generally agree with all of you, but I can see it working in some limited situations. I am thinking of a stopover on the way back to get in a place you want to see, but don't want to dedicate a full trip to, or that does not warrant a full trip. We have, for example, covered Iceland ourselves twice with 3 or 4 day stopovers combined with other European travel. Once on the way out, and once back. IcelandAir has fares that make that stopover doable. I could also see a short burst trip, again on the way out or back somewhere for a theme, whether it be cultural immersion, theater immersion (London) or culinary, where you are not interested in full history. For any of these options, traditional welcome and goodbye dinners would not be practical.
My response sort of mimicked the consensus here. I might entertain a short trip as a way to add on to another journey. I also like to visit Europe while driving my own journey and I could see adding a focused 4 day Tauck trip onto the end of one of those sort of trips. But, yeah, spending all that airfare to go somewhere for 4 days, not interested. Perhaps they’re trying to find a way to get younger people on their trips.
Younger people have the energy to organize their own tours and much more cheaply. They are savvy, use Air B and B, Uber etc They don’t need to stay in high end hotels. My children, in their forties are doing this. It’s going to be years before they can afford Tauck vacations.
I also took the survey, told them that only in the US a 5 day tour made sense to me. Air costs, days wasted traveling don't make much for a 5 day tour to Europe or anywhere else far away.
Like British I would like to see longer tours.
It seems that the tours, on average, have already been shortened by a couple of days. Like from two weeks to 12 days. I believe that was driven by cost. The 14 day tour became unaffordable by the masses, especially when airfares spiked after COVID.
I’d guess for anything other than something like a one week tour in Europe, with the airfare included the price per person of a tour is approaching $20K.
As such, and from the theme of Tauck’s survey, I don’t see tours being lengthened. For those that can afford it (time and money) a longer tour is now achieved by booking them back-to-back. Twenty plus years ago you could easily book a single two-three week tour. They are a lot rarer these days.
Instead of short tours, why doesn't Tauck offer more pre and post-tour excursions that would mate perfectly with existing tours?
I might be interested in a 3-5 day pre-tour excursion, depending on what it is and where it is. We did a pre-cruise excursion to Xi'An to see the terracotta warriors recently. That was more interesting than the rest of the cruise.
If you want to do the survey a second time - for example, you want to say something you forgot to say the first time - open an incognito window and you'll be able to re-do the survey. The incognito window will not let them see the cookie they put on your computer when you did the first pass at the survey.