A tourism \u201ctrend\u201d that first hit the headlines in 2007 is making waves again as workers aged from Gen X upwards increasingly take extended breaks from their jobs to achieve their travel and leisure dreams.<\/p>\n
Unlike digital nomadism, in which people of working age continue earning while on the move, \u201cmicro-retirement,\u201d a term coined nearly two decades ago in The\u00a04-Hour Workweek\u00a0by Timothy Ferriss, sees workers planning long-term periods away from employment to instead undertake adventure travel, devote themselves to their hobbies, and get to know destinations that invite a deeper dive.<\/p>\n
A survey of 2,000 UK residents by tour operator Explore Worldwide revealed that 29% would consider a break of one to three months away from work commitments, while nearly half (48%) said they would devote the period to travel. \u201cAmong mid- and later-life age groups,\u00a0millennials\u00a0are at 75 per cent \u2018likely\u2019,\u00a0Gen X\u00a038 per cent, and boomers 42 per cent,\u201d Explore Worldwide Managing Director, Michael Edwards, said.<\/p>\n
Similar in some ways to a \u201csabbatical,\u201d the idea of micro-retirement is about \u201cstepping back, resetting and rediscovering. It\u2019s a chance to get away from the daily grind and immerse yourself in new places \u2013 offering a fresh perspective that no office routine can provide,\u201d Edwards added.<\/p>\n
The wide range of age groups to whom \u201cmicro-retirement\u201d appeals shows that there is a market for extended travel opportunities beyond the student \u201cgap year\u201d and the pensioners\u2019 cruise. Edwards explained: \u201cAs we live and work longer, retirement can feel so far away, there\u2019s a sense of \u2018why should I wait?\u2019 None of us know what the future holds and for many retirement might feel too late to do the sort of travelling we have our heart set on. Mid-life is also a time of change, and as older children fly the nest we can find we have more time and income to spend on ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bucket list destinations that, according to Explore Worldwide, lend themselves to the concept of micro-retirement include an excursion along the Silk Road through the \u201cFive Stans of Central Asia\u201d (Kazakhstan<\/a>, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan<\/a>, and Uzbekistan<\/a>). A blend of rail, road, and internal flights could take micro-retirees to locations such as the Fann Mountains and \u2018Seven Lakes\u2019 of western Tajikistan, introduce them to the architecture of Khiva<\/a>, Bukhara<\/a> and Samarkand<\/a>, and offer them the chance to sleep in a yurt on the banks of the \u201cPearl of Kyrgyzstan\u201d, salt-lake Issyk Kul.<\/p>\n Alternatively, train enthusiasts with a big budget could consider a trip \u201cAround the World By Train in 100 Days<\/a>\u201d organised by Adventures by Train, an Undiscovered Destinations brand promising to take passengers by rail across Europe, Asia and North America, embracing 14 different countries: France, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, T\u00fcrkiye, Georgia, Azerbaijan<\/a>, Kazakhstan, China, Japan, Canada and the USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tourism \u201ctrend\u201d that first hit the headlines in 2007 is making waves again as workers aged from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,81395,268,10703,4197,85,46,81394,20414,81396,266,267,2012,244,81397],"class_list":{"0":"post-129732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-explore-worldwide","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-gen-x","12":"tag-gen-z","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-micro-retirement","16":"tag-millenials","17":"tag-mini-retirement","18":"tag-personal-finance","19":"tag-personalfinance","20":"tag-tourism","21":"tag-travel","22":"tag-travel-trends"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}