07 APR 2017: Royal Caribbean International is sailing into new waters with the launch of their first non-cruise venture.  This week they announced a consumer travel site for booking tours and activities, in what their website promises “thousands of experiences in hundreds of cities.”

GoBe (Wondrous) offers customized trips in 97 countries and 896 cities.

“Given our experience in working with tour and attraction operations around the world for Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises, the launch of a website that can bring this high-demand offering to all travelers was only natural for us,” said Larry Pimentel, chief destination experience officer of Royal Caribbean Cruises LTD.

The 2014 Adventure Travel Market Report, estimated that the global adventure travel market was valued at $263 billion, a growth of 65% from 2009.

GoBe managing director Billy Campbell said the company would cater to cruise passengers but extend beyond that to the non-cruising traveller.

“Ninety-six percent of all global travel has nothing to do with cruises,” said Campbell to Yahoo Finance. “We did some analysis and found that this was one of the few areas where there was a white space in travel.”

Campbell pointed out the port cities have a variety of tour options that inland destinations lack.

Two weeks ago Marriot International introduced their own online search platform for in-destination experiences, with the promise of 100,00 authentic local experiences in 800 destinations worldwide.

PlacePass activities and tours will launch later in the year, but is being offered to clients in their loyalty programmes.