If you’ve been to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park or just about any famous tourist spot in any corner of the globe, you’ve probably seen people in huge tour buses parked near the sites. Actually, odds are, you’ve been on a group tours package of some sort. Though some people still prefer doing car rentals to drive to various places of interests, the touring industry has always had a strong following due to the convenience of just sitting pretty inside a bus without the problem of navigation, driving and risking getting lost in an unfamiliar territory.
Touring companies often offer day trips to various tourist spots with several stops along the way. This ensures that you get to see many of the significant monuments, national wonders and other places of interest. These tour companies are very familiar with the local environment, so they can easily pick out which places are worth going to. If you’re a traveler who always want to be on the go and see the most number of neat sites in the shortest amount of time, it’s definitely worth signing up to one.
Touring companies also appeal to different niches in the travel industry. In the United States, the industry has grown so big that a niche for senior citizen tours has emerged as one of the more well-performing target markets. Obviously, such tours tend to capitalize on places that heighten the feeling of nostalgia of the good ol’ days. The immigration boom has also seen tours that cater mainly to tourists and immigrants of Chinese descent who have yet to learn the English language. These type of tours customize their tour guide spiels in the Chinese vernacular.
Families with young kids are also a strong niche market. Especially in tour groups that send people to various theme parks around the world, companies have learned to customize their tour programs for the short-attention spans of the curious toddlers.
If you want to just kick back and let someone else worry about directions and the driving, taking a tour is your best bet.