Togethering

Since 9/11, tourists are traveling together more often, even when the trip is to an exotic location. People want to be together.

Ah, vacation. It’s a concept that can either conjure up images of relaxing days on the beach or, for many baby boomers in particular, memories of being crammed into the family truckster (à la the Griswolds in National Lampoon’s Vacation) and enduring a hot and contentious ride to some popular destination, stopping at points along the way to see, say, the world’s largest ball of string and the like. For many of us, our earliest ideas of a “group vacation” meant fighting with siblings over who owned the sovereignty of the back seat.

Then, of course, there are the official group vacations that have been offered by travel agents for years. Open up the travel section of your local newspaper this Sunday and you’re likely to see a bunch of ads promoting group travel or specialty tours to faraway places and popular destinations. Used to be that ads like this conjured up images of blue-haired ladies boarding motorcoaches or an AARP group taking over a ...