Tapping the Trend: Celebrating Life Events with Travel

Following an overwhelming response to its Online Bridal Registry, Aruba has launched a Celebrations Registry open to anyone looking to celebrate while on vacation in Aruba. While travel agents cannot use the Aruba’s Celebrations Registry, they can take a lesson from it, and perhaps, set up their own.

“Celebration travel is a big part of leisure travel in the U.S., as well as in Aruba, so we thought this was a good way to impact consumers and offer them more options in terms of choosing how to spend their vacations,” a spokesperson for the Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) told Travel Market Report.

Before launching the new Registry, the ATA researched celebration travel, backing up its findings with research done by Ypartnership on behalf of Disney a year and a half ago. That study found that of 4,600 U.S. adults, 70% have taken a vacation primarily to celebrate a special occasion, with adults under 35 years of age more likely to have done so.

Ken Schwinn, of Schwinn Tours & Travel, Inc. in Florida, told Travel Market Report, that celebration travel is a big part of his business.

“I am currently doing a 50th anniversary family trip to Costa Rica and a 70th birthday family trip to Kenya,” he said, adding he recently had clients return from a cruise for an anniversary and a couple take three other couples to Vegas to celebrate the wife’s 50th birthday.

When asked how he finds celebration travel clients, Schwinn said clients come to him. “The idea of contacting clients in advance of a birthday or anniversary is a good one but one would have to give a lot of lead time. I have little time as it is.”

Some of the agents at AZ Trails Travel actively pursue celebration travel with their clients said the agency’s president Roxanne Boryczki. However, the agency is not as active as it could be, she admitted.

Celebration Registry

Aruba’s new Celebrations Registry allows consumers to register for sunset sails, villa rentals, snorkeling, casino nights, spa treatments, candlelight dinners, and more. Once the consumer has registered, friends and family can log onto the site, click on the gift registry link, type in the celebratory guests’ names to find the registry, and click on the gift they’d like to purchase. A confirmation is then sent to the recipient.

Among the celebration vacations Aruba is specifically targeting are anniversaries, family reunions, bachelorette parties, and girl/guy getaways. At this time, the Registry is only available for direct consumer bookings, however, travel sellers might want to consider starting a Celebrations Registry of their own.

Several companies offer white label registry products to travel agents including HoneymoonWishes.com and TheHoneymoon.com.