As pent-up demand sends visitor numbers in some destinations soaring, can tour capacity keep up? Joanna Booth asks tour operators including G Adventures and Wendy Wu
For the Japanese, cherry blossom has a deeper cultural significance than just its rosy beauty – its fleeting nature is a reminder that life is both precious and short. For many a traveller, the pandemic provided a similar, if much darker, memento mori, and they emerged with renewed commitment to ticking off the destinations on their bucket lists without delay.
This has proved particularly true for the over-50s, who account for much of the escorted touring demographic. This combination of pent-up demand plus a renewed desire to pack in as much as possible has had immediate results.
Several destinations, including Japan, have seen their popularity soar, with tours selling out and some clients struggling to find capacity to visit where and when they want.
Tours selling out
Since Japan reopened to travellers in autumn last year, demand has been huge, with a host of operators reporting tours selling out, particularly during the ever-popular spring sakura (cherry blossom) season. “Bookings for 2024 have gone through the roof,” says Wendy Wu Tours’ head of PR and communications, Andy Eastham.
“Numbers are 70% up on 2019.” InsideJapan also reports booming autumn sales for the kouyo (fall colour), and with visitors during this period often choosing to visit rural areas, sourcing accommodation can be challenging.
Intrepid Travel has added 47 departures in Japan, and has also seen strong demand for Greece, for which it has added 13 departures for a total of 156 customers. Tours in Egypt and the Middle East have been flying off the shelves for Jules Verne and Explore, with the latter increasing capacity to the destinations by 30% and 40% respectively next year.
Costa Rica has been another success story, with numerous operators namechecking it as a destination in high demand. Journey Latin America reports having to turn down passengers for certain dates, as rooms simply aren’t available.
The operator tries to switch-sell to different departures, or will attempt to source nearby accommodation if the client is happy to stay in an alternative hotel to the rest of the group.
Creative solutions
The easiest solution is to increase the number of tours available – and in some destinations, this has been possible. Explore has expanded capacity across southern Africa by 15% for 2024, and Jules Verne has added safari dates.
However, in some regions the accommodation supply just can’t meet demand. InsideJapan Tours has been offering clients alternatives to popular hotspots – such as Kyoto for cherry blossom and the Kumano Kodo walking trail in autumn – steering them towards lesser-known but no less rewarding areas.
G Adventures and Intrepid Travel have had to think laterally when it comes to Iceland, where demand is high and accommodation limited. Intrepid has added unusual stays, including a sustainable farm that doubles as an eco-hotel, while G Adventures has shifted trekking itineraries from the south to the quieter east – prompting great feedback from clients.
Brian Young, G Adventures’ managing director for EMEA, believes the industry should be challenging travellers to rethink booking mainstream destinations – and not just to avoid overtourism.
“It’s an opportunity to offer more-authentic and fulfilling experiences, with more of a local touch,” he says. Another option is to encourage clients to travel outside high season. Intrepid has embraced this, with a new range of winter hiking itineraries in destinations including the US national parks and an off-season summit of Morocco’s Mount Toubkal.
Booking patterns
While excess demand might feel novel after a few lean years, there’s nothing unprecedented about surges in popularity. Journey Latin America’s group tours manager, Jim Ashworth, says: “This is not a new phenomenon. It’s always been the case for some destinations at certain times of year – popular Patagonia dates, or the Day of the Dead in Mexico, for example.
If passengers want to guarantee spots on tours, they have to book early.” When it comes to those honeypot areas and times to travel, clients are proving themselves willing to book early. Jules Verne has experienced a surge in bookings more than a year in advance of travel, and Explore’s clients, rather than switching destination if they find the trip they want is sold out, are willing to wait and book for the next season.
Wendy Wu Tours already has bookings for Japan’s spring cherry blossom season in 2026. The operator reports clients taking longer tours, and booking up to four trips at a time. So while capacity issues can cause headaches, they also create potential opportunities – to sell clients an alternative trip for travel in the short term, and a bucket-list adventure for the future.
PICTURES: G Adventures; Wendy Wu Tours; Shutterstock/Petr Salinger
Read more
7 of the best places to stay in Sri Lanka
6 of the best adventure honeymoon destinations
Turkey: dragon’s teeth and sunrise feasts on new Exodus tour to Cappadocia
