Specialized Holidays

In January 2007, I traveled to Northern Thailand. In the cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, tour operators organized 1 or 2-day guided tours for tourists. Trips to Golden Triangle and hill tribe villages were popular, but there were also some unusual ones, such as:

• Thai cooking class, which included shopping for grocery in local market.
• Thai massage class.
• Mountain bike tours.
• All terrain vehicle (ATV) tours.
• Be a volunteer in Elephant Nature Park. (below)
  

In the article “Capturing the Niche” (Newsweek, May 14, 2007 issue), author Michelle Jana Chan noted that there was a growing demand for specialized holidays, and tour operators have been repositioning themselves to cover the niche market.

Earthwatch Institute, mentioned in Chan’s article, organizes many programs for holiday-makers who want something more meaningful. The programs, among others, are:

• Cheetah conservation in Namibia’s ranching heartland.
• Lion conservation in Tsavo, Kenya.
• Monitoring the movement and behavior of elephants in Kenya.
• Unearth the origin of human at Olduvai Gorge.
• Bat conservation in Malaysia.
• Tracing the life cycle of butterflies of Mount Fuji.
• Dolphin conservation program in New Zealand.

If I were a tour operator in my country of Malaysia, what trips shall I organize? Perhaps I will wake up the participants at 4.00am and rush them to the rubber plantation.