HE Travel

Gay travel and tours on all seven continents!

Zachary’s Notes – December 2021

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an old victorian home ready for remodel into a travel bnb

Big Changes in Travel Demand

Hello Fellow HE Travelers,

It’s the last month of the year, and I personally have much to be thankful for. Travel has returned…admittedly with a few new bumps, scrapes and bruises along the way.

However, we’ve become extremely efficient at navigating this new world of random lockdowns, last minute cancelations, and general COVID chaos. The countless hours we’ve spent helping our clients find safe places to go has been difficult at times, but there is a certain joy that comes from helping a worried customer navigate through the noise.

We have seen many of our international travelers returning, which is fantastic! This trend has been accompanied with an even bigger surge in demand for our domestic North American tours. Would you like to know what our biggest demand increase has been? Private rooms. Seriously, that’s our biggest demand change. It makes sense, we all want our own rooms since COVID. This has been a HUGE demand surge…and a small problem.

So, what’s the issue?

Well, unfortunately each boutique hotel, has a very limited supply of total available rooms. When only one person uses a room, it reduces the potential tour group size by one. This means many of our tours are selling out much more quickly, and our groups are now smaller in total size. Personally, I like private rooms, and I like smaller groups. For me, it’s a welcome change. If you’re waiting for last minute shopping deals, it’s a troublesome change.

One of the best tours for general private room availability is our Southwest Colorado Dude Ranch. This tour brings you extreme fun, ample private rooms, remote locations and is very socially distant.

This new demand for domestic tours also has us headed through Dallas tomorrow. We will be scouting for potential dude ranch properties. I am very excited to get back to Texas. I took a gay press tour through Dallas several years ago. It was a ton of fun. You can read about that fantastic experience here.

On the Homefront                                                                     

We are purchasing the building next door to our house. If the city holds to their pre-pandemic promise, we will be combining our 1896 Victorian home, and this newly acquired 1893 Victorian home. The plan is to renovate them into a coffee shop attached to a bed and breakfast. Stay tuned, as there will be much more detail on this project as it develops.

an old victorian home ready for remodel into a travel bnb
Image of the latest building renovation project.

Tour Availability Updates:

If you are interested in our Colombia Gay Adventure tour, or our Mexico City tour, both only have 2 rooms left!

I hope to see you on tour!

Warmly,

Zachary Moses

Global Travel Guru

BTW, here’s my November notes in case you missed them.

About Zachary Moses

Zachary has worked every role at HE Travel, beginning in the marketing mailroom in 2010 and steadily rising through the ranks. His leadership journey culminated in two years on the board of directors for the National Tour Association, followed by an additional two years as CEO of HE Travel.

In 2020, Zachary ran for Governor of Utah as a Democrat, drawing international attention while campaigning in one of the most historically conservative states in the country.

During a 14-month pandemic-related sabbatical, he returned to his roots in carpentry, restoring multiple historic buildings. That same year, he delivered a TEDx talk proposing innovative solutions to help preserve the Great Salt Lake and other western saline ecosystems.

Zachary has since returned to HE Travel, now serving as Chief Experience Officer (CXO), where he focuses on guest experience, innovation, and brand vision.

With more than a decade at the company, Zach continues to lead tours, write for the company blog, and speak at international travel conferences—bringing both frontline experience and executive insight to everything he does.

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