Arnie Weissmann
I'm writing this on Election Day, but before the polls close. The only certainty at this point seems to be that a good chunk of America will be very happy with the ultimate results and a good chunk will be very unhappy.
The majority of us live among people who share our point of view. The website RealClearPolitics.com, which I obsess on every four years, aggregates all major polls and this year indicates that only a handful of states are toss-ups. If we don't live in one of them, odds are pretty good that the majority of those in proximity to us agree with us.
Most travel industry inventory, particularly cruises and tours, involves Americans opting to spend time traveling with other Americans, some of whom will share common political views, others who do not. In the best of worlds, that would be a positive. One can learn a lot listening to people whose experiences and insights differ from our own. In fact, the desire to be exposed to the customs, lifestyles, religions, beliefs and cultures of people from different backgrounds is what propels a good portion of the travel industry forward. To use a mosh pit of travel marketing cliches, many travelers hope that steeping in an authentic, immersive, experiential encounter will be transformational.
The value-add of the travel industry is, to use another industry cliche, that such experiences are highly curated. But when you randomly sit down at a bar on a cruise ship, the loudmouth on the next bar stool denigrating your deeply held political beliefs may be an "authentic" representative of a large portion of America, but exposure to partisan pontification is not why you chose to vacation.
If you're at a cruise ship bar, you can move on to another venue. If you're sitting on a motorcoach, however, you may be in for an awfully long two-week European Treasures tour.
There has always been the risk, heightened on a guided tour, that a fellow traveler or two are, for lack of a better word, obnoxious. But once identified, you can generally avoid sitting near them. However, when roughly half the populace is obnoxious to the other half, it can become an issue.
Some tours are likely to draw a relatively homogenous cohort, or at least attract people who have strong enough enthusiasm for the content of the trip that it can overcome political differences. A stamp collectors' tour of Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Andorra and the Serene Principality of San Marino shouldn't be too riven by political divisiveness.
I'm aware of one company that leans into the polarity: Conservative Tours (its slogan: "Travel Right"). It was started by Kenneth G. Chase, who was the Republican Senate nominee in Massachusetts in 2006. Booking with Conservative Tours, his website says, is "a way for true American Conservatives to travel in luxury, together, with a trusted friend ... "
On the other hand, Trump Travel & Tours was so named in 1985 because its founders love the card game bridge. They were unsuccessfully sued by Donald Trump in 1989 for trademark infringement. ("I'm not a fan," said owner Claudia Rabin-Manning.)
Searching for Conservative Tours' left-leaning equivalent, I came across only local tours focused on city-specific political activity. (The tour guide for "Marx and Engels in Manchester," in England, belonged to a secretive Trotskyite cell in which everyone used an alias.)
I did come across a 2019 survey from MRI-Simmons that looked at differences in travel preferences among self-declared liberals and conservatives. It found liberals more likely to hold a passport (57% to 48%) and, by an eight-point margin, prefer the beach and, by nine points, fine dining when vacationing. Conservatives prefer fishing, by four points, and golf, by two strokes.
Oxford, England-based Political Tours, founded by former New York Times correspondent Nicholas Wood and his South African wife, Karen Davey, is nonpartisan. Their company's small-group tours connect to news and current affairs and interact with politicians, local citizens and country experts in the destinations they visit. Guests come from around the world.
This strikes me as the perfect tour for the 2020s. One of my best friends is my political opposite. What allows us to be close -- I'm godfather to one of his children -- is that he lives in the U.K. and I live in the U.S. When we discuss politics -- which we do, endlessly -- I don't know much about issues that are important to him. His issues aren't my issues, and vice versa. We listen. We ask each other questions.
It's the opposite of American political debate, where we paint with broad strokes. We assume that knowing who people voted for reveals everything about them. This has tainted discourse in America and certainly will create problems for tour and cruise operators. It might be wise to begin a tour or cruise by advising guests that ideology, as well as baggage, be left in cabins and rooms.