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I posted about upcoming events earlier, and wanted to throw out a reminder to everyone about teh Moab Utah music festival. It starts this Thursday, August 31st and runs throught the 16th of September(see the Moab Utah events calendar). It will be a very fun time to visit Moab, enjoy the music in perfect weather.
The official site for the Music Festival is Moabmusicfest.org. The great thing about these festivals is the variety of music offered. You get a little bit of everything from classical piano to jazz groups. Artists this year in Moab Utah include:
The new interacting Moab Adventure Book is finally here! This is probably the most inpressive online feature I have seen in a long time. The book features all the trips and activities in Moab, Utah that the Moab Adventure Center runs. It is an amazing programmed book with the ability ot allow you to turn the pages, play embedded video and watch slideshows.
It took a while to perfect the whole thing, but it turned out great. Special thanks to the design team at The Design Farm in Utah, and also the programming team from Eclipse Media Design. They have done a great job. Now I need to make sure everyone gets a chance to see it, so pass it along to your friends!
Whats hot in Adventure Travel right now? According to many resources, its the possibility of finding love while taking an extreme adventure. Fox news author Michael Y. Park reported that perhaps the best way to find your mate is "getting out of town."
Hilary Black, editor and chief of relationship magazine Tango says that people can meet "doing something they love, and its a lot less of an awkward set-up."
Other say that “there's a bond that is instantly formed when having such great experiences even with strangers...we were all strangers but by the end of the day we all wanted to know more about each other"
How true it is. Its a fascinating concept to try and target your extreme adventure vacations around the possibility of meeting a date. Some say that you learn something special about a person when you are pushing yourself mentally and physically. The more extreme the trip, the more likely you are to find love I guess.
It is interesting how friendships form so quickly on adventure vacations. One of my most recent rafting trips down in Moab, Utah brought me together with about 5 other people on the raft. By the end of the short, 2 hour trip, I had a couple of new friends and interesting stories.
So finding true love on such an adventure is not far fetch.
One company called Airtroductions has taken a similar approach to finding love with travel. They allow users to choose thier "seat buddy" by viewing profiles and selecting people they would be interested in meeting. Brilliant!
Moral of the story? Plan your vacations wisely if you are single. Dont count not being noticed by anyone while out doing extreme adventures, because you never know who will show up...
Adventure travel is beginning to recognize an important and growing niche market- women only travel. The industry in general is still slow to catch on to this market, but it is ready and waiting to happen. 
Seattle pi recently ran an article on the women only market. Although travel experts do not have solid numbers, one expert, Marybeth Bond, estimates that there are about 30 companies now that offer tours for women only.
"I like the idea of women traveling together," says one women, who lives in Dexter, Mich. "I think it is more comfortable with just women, more fun."
Women now have more influence, money and flexibility than ever before. Hence, those not taking advantage of this niche market are missing out on the opportunity. Personally, I think that only having 30 companies that run women only tours is ridiculously low. Especially when you put together these two all important facts (taken from women travel tips):
72 million US women traveled during the past year
70% of all travel decisions are made by women (even us married guys know its true)
So why not target women? I know that our own Western River Expeditions has a Women Only Cataract Canyon 4 Day Rafting Trip. Moab Adventure center may enter this arena soon... hopefully a lot others. The numbers look good, and if you do the research online, you still have some breathing room.
How much does the "outdoor recreation" industry boast in annual economic dollars? A lot more than you would think. According the an Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) study, the most current numbers reported the industry at about $730 billion in annual spending.
That's quite a hefty tag economically. How does it compare to other industries?
Outdoor Recreation: $730 billion
Major Food Industry: $291 billion
Major Auto Industry: $324 billion
Property and Casualty Insurace Industry: $709 billion
Oil and Gas Industry: $1.52 TRILLION (thought that might be a nice addition to the list)
According to the study, about 3/4 of Americans participate in outdoor activity. This next stat is pretty interesting. Here is the breakdown of the top outdoor activities:
Bird watching and other wildlife viewing ventures: 66 million
Bicycling: 60 million
Hiking: 56 million
Camping: 45 million
Props to the bird and wildlife watching people! You are holding strong in first place- although I am not quite convinced that bird watching belongs in the activity category. Perhaps hobby?
Anyway, it just goes to show that the outdoor recreation market is strong and alive. Hopefully companies like the Moab Adventure Center in Moab Utah, and other outdoor adventure providers will continue to see increased business.
The price of gasoline has steadily increased over the summer. The average price in Utah right now is hovering just below $3.00/gallon. I know that a lot of other states have well surpassed the $3.00 mark. So what does that mean for the travel and tourism industry? How are the numbers looking this year for National Park/Monument visits and travel to Moab, Utah? According to the numbers, we get mixed reviews.
Lets look at National Park visits in the southern Utah. The chart here
outlines the most popular sites. We see that Arches NP is actually up with visitors. My last estimates also show that visitors to Moab are up as well. Cedar Breaks NP is up significantly, as is Glen Canyon, Rainbow Bridge, Golden Spikes and Timpanogos Cave. All other destinations are lower this year compared to last. That means roughly 50% of these scenic destinations have seen increases. The other have seen decreases in traffic. Gas prices cannot be the only contributor to these numbers. Most of these areas are remote locations, so we have no correlation there.
Deseret News ran an article on this very point.
Ron Terry, public information officer at Zion, said it's hard to identify reasons for the drop, "but it could be gasoline prices and it could be people are not taking longer trips. We're in the process of conducting a visitor survey. When we get the results, it will give us a better idea of where visitors are from and what they come here to do."
Other outdoor travel industries, such as river rafting, have seen dramatic increases in business. So travel to Moab Utah has not suffered due to gas prices. National Parks still attract visitors, as they should.
Forget mountain biking on the famous Moab Utah Slickrock trails- try unicycling on the mountain. Little known but gaining in popularity, the annual Moab Utah MuniFest invites all unicyclers to challenge themselves in on the redrocks on Moab.
Its quite the sight to behold- a couple hundred unicyclers trying to traverse up and down the rocky terrain of Moab mountains. But they do it, and they do it well. Its actually very exciting to watch, and makes any onlooker feel like they should be able to easily handle a unicycle in the mountains.
Every year they get together for the event, held at the end of March, and this year's event drew over 150 participants. The Munifest Website offers plenty of information and pictures from various individual sites and galleries. Nathan Hoover on Smugmug has some great shots of this year's event.
Maybe the Moab Adventure Center needs to start providing a unicycle trip? (j/k)
New York Times author Timothy Egan recently ran a report on the increasing number of crimes near forested and National Park areas. Simply stated, most National Parks contain large areas of land that is prime for "urban problems". As small town like Moab Utah grow in size, so does urban problems and crime, says one ranger.
Maybe its because I am not a Park Ranger so I don't see the crimes myself, but I personally have not seen a noticeable increase of "urban crimes" in National Parks. The article specifically pointed out Moab Utah as one of the prime suspects for this type of increasing behavior. It is true that Moab is surrounded by Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, both of which cover large amounts of land and acreage. However, I have yet run into off-road incidents with other people. Not doubt the Rangers see a lot more action than I do however.
Maybe I will talk to some Rangers in the area and see what they think about the situation.
Moab Utah is well known for being the Mecca of mountain biking. Apparently, the international arena recognizes this fact as well. In a news article published by icNorthWales.co.uk , they highlight an up-and-coming company called Bikefax.
Bikefax is in Europe, and they create custom bike trail maps and other services for the expanding mountain bike community. According to Sue Savege, they have gotten requests in Europe for trails maps to Moab:
""We have also been asked to produce a guide for mountain bike trails in Moab, on the Utah/Colorado border, one of the best known mountain biking destinations in the world, and we are working on that."
I have contacted the company with interest to see about them producing this custom map. Right now, the Moab Adventure Center has a map section with multiple maps, including bike trails. But maps can always get bigger and better.
It is amazing to see the prominence that a small place like Moab Utah can get around the world. But for those who have experienced the awesome trails of Moab, it may come as no surprise.
This is the pre-announcement for probably the coolest online feature for adventure travel I have seen yet. We here at the Moab Adventure Center are very excited about the possibilities and functionality of our newest addition to the website- An interactive book!
I know, it sounds boring, but I really is amazing. Keep your eyes out the next few days for the official announcement. I will make sure the whole world knows about this book. It has pages that you can turn yourself, very realistic looking. Video, slideshows, links, the works.
Here is the sneak peak for the book:
I have already posted an update for the upcoming 24 Hours of Moab bike ride in a couple of months. Aparently, Floyd Landis used this race early in his riding career as training grounds. In a recent article from the Baltimore Sun, one of his friends commented :
"He was determined in a way that was scary," said Joe Surkiewicz, a cycling enthusiast who wrote about the sport and accompanied Landis and some Baltimore-area riders to the 24 Hours of Moab mountain bike race in Utah.
Landis has always had the determination and drive to win. Scandal or no scandal, its takes strength and training to win the Tour de France. Obviously he had what it took to win the race. Plus, mountain biking in Moab Utah for sure prepared him for some of those mountain stretches!
