Small is beautiful
AND four other travel trends for 2023
Travel has seen its fair share of ups and downs. We look ahead to travel trends for 2023 and beyond and bring five ideas for you.
A tour group enjoying the ruins of Paestum all to themselves. Paestum was a major ancient Greek city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Magna Graecia (southern Italy). Small group touring allows you to slow down and truly absorb the experience, while having a more sustainable impact on the places you visit.
Small is definitely beautiful when it comes to travel
Hasn’t travel had some ups and downs in the past few years? It’s no wonder that, as the world reopens for exploration, that we’re increasingly interested in quality over quantity, small instead of crowded, and putting safety first.
We’ve looked forward to the 2023 travel year (and beyond) and identified five trends to consider when planning your next adventure.
How many of the five fit for you?
1. Small is beautiful
Small is beautiful when it comes to travel. We’ve seen group sizes reduce over the past 15-20 years as travellers have appreciated shorter waiting times and more personalised service. When eating out, smaller groups are more often able to order their individual meal preference rather than be restricted to a set menu. And, let’s face it, who wants to be part of a huge group following a flag-waving guide?
Following years dominated by Covid, during which the idea of being in a crowd switched from exciting to terrifying, small group tours have even more advantages. Some historic sites and museums continue to have strict limits on tour group sizes and small groups can allow access to exclusive sites and opportunities.
At Academy Travel, instead of boasting that we’re ‘bigger than ever’, we’re excited to announce that our tailored small group tours led by experts have just got even smaller. We’ve listened to feedback that consistently confirms that 16 is an ideal group size for allowing for both getting to know like-minded travellers and a more individualised experience.
Ultimately, our tours with a maximum of 16 in a group allow you to have better access to our expert tour leaders and focus more on the experiences you want to enjoy.
Exploring Taormina’s Graeco-Roman theatre, with superb views to Sicily’s Mount Etna. Built in the 3rd century BC, carved out of the hard rock of Monte Tauro, it once welcomed thousands of spectators but it now much more suited to just a small group of travellers.
2. Expert equals wisdom
At Academy Travel, we like to say that there are no qualifications to join one of our tours but it helps to come with a desire to incorporate genuine intellectual insight into your travels.
However, when it comes to our experts, who lead all of our tours, we have high standards for qualifications. All our experts have postgraduate qualifications and either university-level teaching or research experience. And they know their destinations in great detail, including introducing you to places and sites that are less well-known and less tourist-heavy.
Whether it’s a Florence local with a Masters in Renaissance Studies, a practicing archaeologist, a political scientist with a doctorate on the history of US presidents, a specialist in garden design with an MA in Country House Studies, or a musician with a PhD on Mozart, you can be assured we have the ideal expert for cultural tours.
Archaeologist Dr Estelle Lazer, known for her work on the human victims of Pompeii in southern Italy, providing genuine insights at the site of Pompeii rather than just facts and anecdotes.
3. Organised means freedom
The idea of ‘going with the flow’ and ‘making decisions in the moment’ while travelling may seem romantic but, in reality, this open-approach usually leads to inefficiencies, frustration and the constant risk of missing out.
In contrast, travel that is well organised and supported can give you the freedom to fully focus on the moment and allow you extra moments of precious time.
Academy Travel gives you this freedom by taking the work out of travel organisation. You see, in addition to our expert tour leaders, every Academy tour has a tour manager who works behind-the-scenes to orchestrate a smooth and satisfying travel experience.
Your tour manager will focus on logistics so you can focus on learning and leisure. They’ll keep safety in mind so you can keep the sights and sounds of your experience front and centre. They consider your needs so you can enjoy your comfort.
Enjoying the view at Connell’s Bay Sculpture Park on the eastern tip of New Zealand's Waiheke Island. A 45-minute ferry ride across Auckland Harbour brings you to this idyllic island, where you will find world-class wineries, secluded beaches and a number of art centres - a perfect spot for a moment of reflection.
4. Longer stays for deeper memories
Ten countries in seven days? If those words strike fear into your heart, you are in the right place. Slow is the go, no matter whether you’re talking about food, fashion or friendship.
Slow travel is about taking the time to see the highlights as well as the unexpected. To follow someone else’s lead as well as follow your instincts and heart. To explore widely and immerse deeply.
A slower pace is particularly important for travel experiences based around history, culture, arts or architecture to allow for the opportunity to absorb and process the experience and to make time for individual discoveries. After all, who wants to race around a museum or historical site that might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
A slower travel pace allows you to iImmerse yourself in your travel experience, courtesy of the carefully planned itineraries offered by Academy Travel.
Wandering the canals of Venice in the evening when the tourist hordes have departed. Long stays and structured visits allow for sufficient free time for individual sightseeing and relaxation.
5. Travel in a continuing-Covid world
International travel is back on the agenda but the pandemic has changed travel across the board and for individuals. Safety is top-of-mind for many and prioritising quality over quantity is an understandably common refrain.
Elements of luxury might still be important but being restricted from travel for so long has clarified for many that travel is about the experiences and opportunities, not the size of your hotel suite. Private viewings, exclusive events, behind-the-scenes visits... many of our tours feature events which are not regularly available on group tours and allow you to truly experience a museum or monument without the crowds.
Tailored small group journeys that are well-organised allows safety concerns to be paramount. Travel that brings together like-minded people with subject-matter experts in a common quest for enrichment and education is the best way to make travel special and memorable.
And in these days of increasing tourism, choosing the right time of year and even the right time of day is essential. If you look through our program you will notice that many of our tours take place in the ‘shoulder’ and even low seasons, especially for popular destinations. We also take care to avoid big cities on the weekend, where possible, when sites can be overcrowded.
Enjoying an exclusive private tour of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the world’s greatest museums. Before the doors open to the public, a museum lecturer guides our group through some of the most famous highlights, free from the regular crowds.
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THE ACADEMY TRAVEL DIFFERENCE
Behind the diversity of our tours lies a consistency of philosophy and a consistency of approach. Working closely with our expert tour leaders, we create itineraries which explore destinations in a meaningful way and include not just the obvious, well-known sites, but also less touristed but equally rewarding gems and places that are a little off the beaten path.
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