Rocky Mountaineer Vacations' Guest Lounge Blog

We all want a Perfect Vacation!

A post by Seth Godin about the "problem of perfect," rings so true in the hospitality industry.  Whether you are on a vacation or in a restaurant a or visiting an attraction, the customer expects - and the management attempts to present, perfection in their product delivery.  But is it attainable? Of course not.

Many customers are not prepared for the adventure part of a paid experience. The recovery of a slip up can be an adventure taken in the proper context, or it can be a ruined day.  Seth uses the word "interesting."  Interesting has unpredictability to it.  Perfect is predictable.

As the Rocky Mountaineer brand becomes more established, the expectations rise; and so they should. Any product in the hospitality industry has a mix of an infrastructure element and a people element.  Both can be unpredictable in their delivery, but they can be interesting if one is open to what the final result may be. 

Very occasionally, our trains get delayed.  Sometimes an hour, sometimes more.  Long explanations why (another post), but likely because of freight train traffic on the same route. You may read some comments about this on some of the travel sites. Yes it can occur.  What was anticipated to be a perfect trip may not be - but with the change in plans, some unexpected magic can occur.  Our onboard team kicks into another gear.  You see things track side you may not have noticed.  You learn about an area you may never have known about - or you may find out that you and someone else in the coach grew up in the same hometown.   The journey, especially an interesting journey, is the the destination. This is the lure of travel for so many. And that can be perfect.

Over 50 Social Networking - Eons

Last night, the US CBS network show, 60 Minutes had a profile on Facebook and it's founder, 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg.  It got me thinking how fast this type of social networking has caught on and how the medium is now nicely segmented for other demographics.

Eons describes itself as the Facebook for people over 50 years old.  Given that I will go out on a limb and say that the majority of people who use Rocky Mountaineer Vacations travel products are 50 plus, I had a look.  There are some interesting travel articles, groups and blogs that may be worth a look.  It is simple to navigate and really fast. The guaranteed thing about Eons is that you won't find my kid's profiles there.

If 50 plus is not your age group, try Multiply for the 30 plus crowd or teebeedee if you have hit the 40 year old mark.  Either way, have fun with it and you might even find some people who have been on the Rocky Mountaineer or can impart some advice.

World's Leading Travel Experience By Train - Rocky Mountaineer

I posted a year ago about the World Travel Awards.  Rocky Mountaineer is honoured to be honoured again as the World's Leading Travel Experience by Train!

Fellow nominees for this award included The Blue Train (South Africa), Rovos Rail (South Africa), Great Southern Railway Ltd. (Australia), Palace on Wheels Inc. (India), Orient - Express Ltd. (U.K.), Orient Express (Peru), Grand North Western, The Royal Scotsman (Scotland).

The best news is that tourism trains are doing very well world wide.  As the bar gets set higher, so does the challenge to improve the product. Trains like the Rocky Mountaineer and the ones above are not simply about point to point transportation - rather they are an experiential travel excursions.  Without this component, the passenger trains delivering to a broad market base will not survive. With fixed capacities and enormous entry costs,  I have not met a business model that is as capital and labour intensive as tourism trains.  Having said that, RMV and other tourism trains can take you places that simply cannot be accessed by vehicles, ships or airplanes. That is what makes us unique - and frankly, that is what drives the passion to be the best in the world at what we do.

Top 50 Employer in Canada for 2008 - Rocky Mountaineer Vacations

    A year ago, I wrote a blog post on Rocky Mountaineer Vacations (RMV) and our selection as a Top 50 Employer by the Globe and Mail.  (Globe and Mail, you say?...think Daily Mail or USA Today, if you are from outside of Canada) Well, I am proud to say RMV has been chosen and the selection was recently announced with great fanfare at the end of the year.

The Globe's selection is the most prestigious of all the Top Employer Awards, and requires significant buy in from employees groups in excess of 400 to make the short list.  It does not mean we are the perfect employer or the best fit for everyone, but I do hope it reflects the passion we exhibit within the tourism experience we present to the world.  Hats off to our employees who strengthen our brand - and more importantly, have the privilege to provide memorable experiences to thousands of people from all over the world, each and every day. And, yes, we think that RMV is a pretty good place to hang a hat for a career too. Two years in a row is a credit to our team...

What's a GST?

In Canada, GST stands for Goods and Services Tax.  You can read about it on the link, but the good news - if there can be good news on a tax - is that it has just been reduced to 5%.  In short, your vacation to Canada just got reduced by one percent.  Happy New Year!