Slow Down Visitor!

A couple of days ago I received a phone call from someone inquiring about our sightseeing tours. First question was NOT what it contained, but how long it would last. Our  standard tours are 150 minutes – 2 1/2hrs. That was too long for these people. I offered a truncated tour of 1 1/2hr., but that was still too long for these folks. Then I offered a “quickie” of one hour and they finally agreed. So I threw myself in my special outfit racing off to the Roosevelt Park to pick up these hurrying travelers. Upon my arrival a park employee came out and told me the people had actually changed their mind. They simply didn’t have ANY time to do a tour and had already left. Obviously, these folks will never know what they missed. In my work as a local tour operator I have noticed that an increasing number of people are spending their vacation time under wrong priorities. There seems to be a race over who is gonna “make” most destinations during their vacation journey. On their hasty way these people are going to miss most of what they could have seen if they just had been willing to spend a little more time.  What is the reason for such poor misdirected way of spending quality time on a vacation? Is it the ever changing media landscape we are bombarded with every day, is it the tourism industry itself who is tempting people into hasty departures and a daily change of accommodations? is it the fact that we can brag over how much terrain was covered on our trip or the way we live our entire life hunting from one thing to the other?  ACTION, ACTION, ACTION! Cruise agencies are putting together tours where they have to herd crowds through busy places and get them back onboard where the next activity is already waiting. Bus companies are spending as little as 1hr. at the Roosevelt Cottage, before they are heading off the island again. In fact processing 50 bus passengers through customs is taking more time than the entire excursion. What a nutty way to travel! You know there once was this tourist entering a tourist information in Banff,Alberta inquiring about where he could rent a car. When told where to go he added that he had to be in Toronto the next afternoon! Poor man, I’d say! People tend to think that they “can do” a new destination in a few hours. Out here on Campobello some people seem to think that by spending 2 hrs on the island they have seen and experienced everything. They couldn’t be more wrong! The interested traveler could easily spend 3 weeks on the island and never get bored. And in times of an ever weakening economy it would be significantly cheaper to do so. But all–of-a-sudden that is not so important. Happy trails folks – enjoy life!