Seniors Big on Women's Travel Club
Both Over-50s and Younger Women Follow Phyllis Stoller Everywhere
Nov 28, 2007
Women over the age of 50 who love to travel and prefer "women only" groups have flocked to the Women's Travel Club. Membership could be the best $39 you ever invested in a vacation club..
Members don't have to be over or under any age to join. But founder Phyllis Stoller, who is in her 60s, still an inveterate traveler and a new grandmother, knows what vacations appeal to women and how to provide it at a reasonable cost. She said perhaps half of the participants in her club are over 50, and many are married women who don't do tours with their hubbies.
"I was a banker," Stoller explained "I started Women's Travel Club for women like me." The club is now a division of travel marketer Club ABC Tours.
The top reasons for joining the club?
- "I'm tired of waiting for my friends" -- Women enjoy vacationing with others but it is a hassle to put together your own group
- "My husband just wants to work" --Husbands are not as interested in adventure travel, or may not be as physically active, or are workaholics
- "I just got a promotion" or "I just got laid off" or "I'm recovering from a divorce" -- Women like to reward and/or comfort themselves by traveling.
- "I've got a yen to see China, Abu Dhabi and Egypt but I don't want to spend a gazillion dollars" -- Women, more than men, seek out exotic destinations without going the Rough Guide/sleep in hostels route.
With the Women's Travel Club, Stoller learned the preferences of clients, who were mostly but not always college-educated professional women. (Since Club ABC Tours now owns the business, Stoller no longer has a planning role.)
One client is a bus driver who saves up her extra dollars for trips. The one thing that unites them is they are all "travel freaks." According to Stoller, her competition is museum- and university-affiliated trips that are far more expensive than hers.
How does the Women's Travel Club manage to pack so much into reasonably priced offerings? She joined forces with ABC Destinations, a leading travel provider. The club is run as a separate division so it has the buying power of a much larger organization combined with the personal touch of a members' club.
The result? Sold-out trips to locations as exotic as Dubai and as traditional as Paris -- with a special touch. For example, at Thanksgiving in 2006, the club went to Italy for five days at a fancy hotel and spa, side trips to unique spots and Thanksgiving at a villa farmhouse where the group cooked its own Thanksgiving dinner with the guidance of a professional Italian chef.
Stoller initiated many unique trip ideas. "I wanted to go up the Gambia river with a university group but it was $10,000. I never saw a trip like it anywhere else so I created one." Sounds like reason enough for a venturesome woman to give herself a membership as a present.
Summary: the Women's Travel Club and others like it that offer all-inclusive vacations appeal to women for a variety of reasons.
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