The fastest growing segment of adventure travel

What's next for Self-guided Adventures

There’s something special about exploring the world on your own two feet, or two wheels. It’s the buzz of reaching remote places you can’t get to any other way, the challenge of getting from A to B under your own steam, and the rejuvenating effect of all that nature and fresh air!

You can walk or cycle on a wide range of guided tours – but self-guided tours are ideal for relatively independent travellers, who still want specialist knowledge and support in the background and all the logistics taken care of. Guiding yourself is more of a challenge, more flexible, and more affordable – which makes it accessible for more people.

I’m a little bit biased as self-guided walking has become my main style of travel recently – but I’m part of a wider growth trend in the sector. One of the leading specialists, Macs Adventure, has grown by more than 30% per year for the last decade.

Brands that specialise in guided group adventures have noticed too – and are developing their own self-guided trips to get in on the action. World Expeditions saw growth in self-guided travel was outpacing any other segment and last year Exodus reported an impressive 133% rise in bookings.

But it’s a competitive market. Average booking values and margins are lower for self-guided than for guided group travel, and it’s more difficult for brands to differentiate their product and add value to the experience. Load Off Your Back (the self-guided brand of Ramblers Walking Holidays) expanded its range into Europe just last year – but has shut up shop already. Can the sector’s rapid growth continue?

I think there’s huge potential to get even more travellers seeing the world on foot in future. Here’s my take on some of the top opportunities, for self-guided walking in particular.

① New horizons

Unsurprisingly, many self-guided tour operators have focused on Western and Central Europe so far. The region’s renowned for well-maintained long-distance trails, and walkers are supported by accommodation and services that have developed around well-loved mountain ranges, pilgrimage trails and coastal paths.

As demand has grown, specialists have added great depth and variety to their product range in this core region, beyond the famous routes and onto lesser-trodden paths.

There’s a huge range of small operators in the sector but looking at some of the main brands, almost 70% of self-guided walking trips are concentrated in just four countries: Spain, Italy, France and the UK. Almost 90% are in the top eight countries, including Portugal, Switzerland, Germany and Austria (see image).

There’s a lot of competition in this small area. Such high emphasis on the Eurozone can also leave brands vulnerable when exchange rates become less attractive to customers – or when Brexit finally happens.

Seasonality in this small region is also heavily skewed to April to October – and for travellers wanting more than ‘moderate’ walking, the season is even shorter as most options are in mountain regions.

Some operators have started to offer a limited range further afield – from Greece to Iceland to Japan – but there’s more potential to extend their horizons. Outside the core countries, many trending European destinations remain largely untapped by self-guided brands – from leisurely walking on Greek islands, Cyprus or the Montenegrin coast, to more challenging hiking in Slovenia’s Julian Alps, Romania’s Carpathians or Slovakia’s Tatras.

Beyond Europe, there are also opportunities to offer established hut-to-hut hikes such as New Zealand’s ‘Great Walks’ or the USA’s Presidential Range, or moderate walking in global destinations that have already proven popular for guided walking tours, such as Sri Lanka or Costa Rica. In some of these destinations, suitable walks might be dispersed across a large geographical area, but it's possible to combine them into a single trip through a ‘Drive & Hike’ style of travel.

② New challenges

Many self-guided operators have focused on adding comfort into their product range in recent times – a seismic shift that has helped broaden the appeal of walking holidays, says National Geographic Traveller. Leisurely itineraries, premium accommodation, and trips centred around food and wine have increased. Most new product development has been for ‘easy to moderate’ or ‘moderate’ walking.

So far there’s been less focus on the more active end of the spectrum. But that could change, as guided group operators renowned for more challenging trekking are increasing their presence in the self-guided sector too.

KE Adventure are expected to launch a self-guided programme this year, and World Expeditions highlighted self-guided as one of their trends for 2018, having launched the first self-guided trek in the Everest region (supported by porters). That built on their challenging self-guided trips on Australia’s Larapinta Trail, the W Trek in Patagonia, and hut-to-hut hiking in Canada (under the Great Canadian Trails brand).

For brands who want to be at the forefront of developing self-guided itineraries on challenging new trails, there are always new emerging routes to turn to – from the Via Dinarica in the Balkans to the Transcaucasian Trail in Georgia and Armenia.

③ Next generation

Whether it’s due to limited budgets, hectic schedules or the desire to fill Instagram with travel stories more often – the general demand for short breaks has increased, especially for younger travellers. Most self-guided operators do offer some short breaks in their programme, although these are often more leisurely or moderate taster trips. However, operators of guided group tours have shown that demand exists for more intense experiences – whether summitting a mountain over a long weekend with Exodus, or tackling a huge range of multi-active weekends with Much Better Adventures. Challenging short adventures are still an untapped opportunity for self-guided operators.

Another way to reach next generation travellers is with technology that helps new walkers feel more confident on the trails. Nowadays more of us are used to having our smartphones as backup to make life a bit easier. Macs Adventure recently launched their own route mapping app for travellers to navigate while on their trips; other operators wanting to reach a wider demographic could follow suit.

④ More solo-friendly

The rise in solo travel is one of the industry’s biggest trends – but self-guided adventures only attract a low proportion of solos, so operators will want to do more to reach this growing market.

Some self-guided operators only accept bookings for two or more people travelling together, excluding solos entirely; while others won’t accept solo bookings for trips in mountainous areas for safety reasons. Yet operators like World Expeditions have shown it is possible in remote regions – by using daily safety check-ins and guaranteeing some trips at a minimum of two people, which can be two separate solo bookings (they also match solos to eliminate accommodation supplements where possible). Having designated start days for solo travellers could make this kind of arrangement easier too.

Improved pricing for solos is another opportunity. Many operators charge high solo traveller supplements – pricing some solo travellers out of the market, or removing the price advantage over equivalent guided group tours. Designing more trips so they can make use of public transport for arrival transfers or have fewer private luggage transfers en route; and choosing accommodations which offer good-value single room rates (not just the best rates for couples), could help make a wider range of trips accessible to solo travellers.

Ideas, comments or feedback? Let me know below!

Interested in other adventure travel trends? Read more here, or see the links to my other articles below.