The whoopie club
Transnational companies like hotel, leisure, and travel companies are increasingly exploring the possibility of running daily eco-tours to capitalise on this new segmentation of the tourism market. Yet, many of the consumers purchasing ecotourism trips have a number of factors in common. They are arguably typified by the "whoopie club" who are the wealthy, healthy, older people in search of original, pristine destinations.
Meet a member of the new ‘Whoopie’ club – wealthy, healthy older people. Like many eco-tourists, they are from the rich industrialised countries, aged between 44 and 64 years of age, and this growing elitist club has ‘been there and done that’. Not for them the packed beaches of the tourist resort. According to a survey carried out by US-based financial company American Express, these travellers have exhausted traditional destinations and are now in search of original, preferably pristine destinations.
(Mowforth and Munt 2008: 124)
