Overseas Adventure Travel Wins 2017 Solo Travel Award for "Best Tour"

BOSTON, Oct. 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.), the leader in small groups on the road less traveled, has won a 2017 Solo Travel award for "Best Tour" by Solo Traveler, an online resource and community focused on providing information, inspiration, and advocacy for the solo traveler and the travel industry that serves them.  This is the first year that Solo Traveler has held the awards to recognize solo-friendly tour operators, cruise lines, and other travel entities.  

"We are delighted to be recognized for our efforts to make travel more affordable, inclusive, and enjoyable for solo travelers," said Chairman Alan E. Lewis.  "Solo travelers are certainly the fastest-growing segment of our business—and in the industry.  We should encourage and support solos in their travel quests—not penalize them for it."

To serve solo travelers, O.A.T. offers limited Free Single Supplements on all of its base trips, Free Single Supplements on its optional pre-and-post trip extensions, and free Matching Roommate and online Travel Companion programs.  O.A.T. Trip Leaders are trained to engage and support solo travelers from the start of their trip, contacting them before the trip even begins, sharing their regions through authentic itineraries that take them to local places where tourists don't go, and offering free time for individual discovery.  They also foster camaraderie in each group, bringing together like-minded travelers with similar interests.

More than 150,000 solo travelers have traveled O.A.T. in the past five years, regardless of marital status.  Today, 46% of all O.A.T. travelers join the company as solos—up from 44% in 2015 and 27% in 2010.  Eighty-five percent of O.A.T.'s solo travelers are women who travel solo despite marital status. 

The Top 5 Most Popular Destinations for Solos: 2015-2017, based on sales:

1. Morocco          4,162
2. Iceland            3,918
3. *Botswana      3,901
4. India                3,381
5. Japan               3,359

*Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe safari

The Solo Travel Awards judged nominees in five categories: Tours; Specialty Tours; Packaged Travel (by on and offline travel agents); River Cruises; and Ocean Cruises.  Judging the awards were Spud Hilton, travel editor, San Francisco Chronicle; Keith Jenkins, CEO, iambassador and publisher, Velvet Escape; Andrew McCarthy, director, award-winning travel writer, and actor; Tracey Nesbitt, editor and contributor, Solo Traveler; and Oneika Raymond, publisher, Oneika the Traveller and in-house travel expert for CTV's Your Morning. 

For more information on O.A.T., please call 800-955-1925, www.oattravel.com, or OAT Solo.

ABOUT OVERSEAS ADVENTURE TRAVEL

Established in 1978, Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.) is part of Boston-based Grand Circle Corporation's family of travel companies, which also includes Grand Circle Cruise Line and Grand Circle Travel.  O.A.T. offers more than 65 small group adventures by land and by small ship.  In 1992, owners Alan and Harriet Lewis established the nonprofit Grand Circle Foundation to support communities in which Grand Circle works and travels, including some 300 humanitarian, cultural, and educational endeavors worldwide—among them, 100 schools, in 50 countries.  The Foundation is an entity of the Lewis Family Foundation, which has pledged or donated more than $164 million since 1981.

SOURCE Overseas Adventure Travel

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