French Tour Operator Launches “Immersion” Tours Limited to 12 People: A steady story of the past decade has been the incredible shrinking size of the tour group. There seems to be no known specific date that the trend began, but it obviously coincided with the shrinking passenger capacity of the tour bus. Suddenly, it seemed, there were other vehicles besides the 50-passenger buses. There were 24-passenger buses or vans that offered smaller group tours options and flexibility in their tours, a shift that obviated the need for the larger capacity vehicles. The buses—now vans—continued to get smaller.
Soon, it was the Mercedes Benz Sprinters that one saw more and more in front of attractions, at restaurants or off-loading passengers at hotels. Today, one can rent, buy, purchase or hire 12-passengers Sprinters that can be customized to carry from 9 to 13 or more passengers.
At about the same time this was going on. A small French tour operator, VISITEURS, began making news in the travel trade with programs that one might call alternative tours. Last year, it launched its “Exploration” circuits for groups limited to 20 passengers. The product succeeded well enough that, this year, the company launched its “immersion” circuits.
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A note about VISITEURS: According its own website account, it was founded in 1986 by two friends (Didier Blanchard and Didier Rabaux) “fond of travel,” and it has been exploring the four corners of the world for 30 year: “At VISITEURS, you not only buy a trip, but you also buy a trip that makes sense, that will give you emotion, one that will allow you to have a real experience. It is no coincidence that we are constantly adding new ingredients to our ‘homemade’ recipes such as our ‘Splendeurs’ programs and our circuit extensions. In constant awareness of the expectations of travelers and our customers, we ‘unearth’ and concoct for you the most ‘Fine Travel.’ VISITEURS, today has close to 45 destinations around the world, mostly in Asia, Pacific & Middle East, Africa and Indian Ocean, North America & Latin America, and now Europe.”
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So, what is the “Immersion” spirit?
A news release announcing the product said that “”The Immersion spirit can
be summed up as ‘traveling differently,’ with new tours and stages, like the
Danakil desert in Ethiopia, or taking the time to discover a region for a
longer time, like Sapa in North Vietnam.”
On the accommodation side, said the release, “production gives pride of place
to eco-lodges in Vietnam and Thailand for example, character structures (a
dahabeya in Egypt or a yurt in Mongolia), or guest houses like in South
India—on a human scale and in an ever more personalized spirit.”
You can find out more about VISITEURS, which is based in Amien, France and is about a two-hour drive north of Paris, at https://www.visiteurs.fr/.
