Traditional group is out, arrange themselves with iPad's - Volkskrant

By: Gerard Reijn – 08/30/13, 09:06

think stock.

The bankruptcy of travel agents Baobab is not only the result of the recession, but also from the Internet. “Young people go traveling with an iPad in your pocket and on arrival everything yourself.”

• ‘In the past two weeks to Peru was very adventurous, even if you went with a group

  Gert Nieuwboer, director SNP

“In the countries of the Orinoco and Amazon you get into conversation with Indians, you’ll stay at cowboys, share a beer with the River residents in Manaus and you wander through colonial and colorful cities. ‘

Recruitment Text
Really a recruitment text for a tour of the firm Baobab, pioneer and leader in exotic tours forty years. Baobab focused on people who did not want to lie on a beach and did not want to spend the museums in large cities. Their time In people who sought adventure and authentic. But since Thursday Baobab is bankrupt. Like sister company Summum. Thursday afternoon was declared bankrupt, after the company previously had to do the Travel Compensation Fund SGR

an appeal in 1972 bought Rik Jan Viezee a bus, and traveled with a group of Dutch months through Africa. Baobab was born. Decades was the successful formula. Who wanted adventure, but was not an adventurer, could at Baobab go.

Recession
The GSC Viezee told that the demise of Baobab and Summum are caused by persistent recession. That seems to be correct, because the Permanent Vacation Monitor TNS / NIPO finds that the number of holidays in the first half of 2013 has decreased.

for the first time But there’s more to it. The traveler is not to poke the traditional exotic group. Gert Nieuwboer, director of travel company SNP, also grew up with a similar formula, has seen it happen. ‘In the past two weeks to Peru was very adventurous, even if you went there with a group going. But now there is internet. Now young people there with an iPad in your pocket and arrange them on the spot everything yourself. “

This trend was u sed previously. Nieuwboer: “We noticed twenty years ago that many people wanted more individual travel. There we found formulas. That was not so hard. We asked ourselves: we would like to book a trip in itself. And our answer was no. We wanted more freedom, more individual travel. There we developed a formula for. I have the impression that Baobab his formula has never changed. “Very

Accommodation
trip to Brazil, for example, with which this article begins, lasts 24 days, with around 15 men. The formula which SNP now the bulk of the revenue comes, is more flexible and individualized. The agency regulates the nights, provides travel routes for walkers and cyclists and bring the luggage to the next place. But the traveler goes his own way. “With this formula we get two-thirds of our turnover. With the classic third group yet. “

Another competitor Baobab is Herman van der Velde, founder of travel company Djoser. It was originally an Egyptian specialist – Van der Velde Egyptologist from home – but now offers tours to forty countries. Van der Velde sold Djoser in 2005, but has bought back again this spring. Or there is no future in adventure tours? “If that was so, I do not repurchased Djoser? Group tours for us still the most important, but we build as much freedom in our concepts. Three weeks wit h a group of Dutch travelers behind a Dutch tour guide and evenings together eating beef stroganoff, that nobody wants anymore. ” And that the recession is not merciless? “We have a good summer.” SNP also says “black numbers” to write.

New concept
Nieuwboer SNP will soon release a new concept in the market. Yes, a group. But not Dutch, but for an international company. Yomads, the trips are called, derived from Young Nomads. “People still want to group tours, but with an international company.”

So does the Dutch company together with travel agencies in countries where English is spoken, because the company must be able to understand each other. Course “Then everyone flies to Lima, for example, and there begins our journey. It will also last for weeks, but much shorter. ” With this formula he targets twenties, which until now were only moderately achieved and thirties. The first trips are planned next year.

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