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Adventure Firm Caters to Affluent Travelers

Albuquerque Journal

By Russell Max Simon—Journal Staff Writer

Owen Perillo is “chief adventure officer,” Janine Sieja is “adventure director,” and together they have a plan to combine all that’s alluring about Santa Fe, package it and sell it to a growing market of affluent, outdoorsy, heath-conscious tourists.

It’s called Santa Fe Mountain Adventures.

The “Santa Fe,” Perillo said, is intended to draw those who have heard of the City Different and its growing travel-destination status. The “Adventures,“ Perillo added, was thrown in because “it’s kind of a buzzword in terms of active adventure and travel,” but the “Mountain” was the “risky choice,” in terms of the infant company’s marketing and image appeal, Perillo said.

“We didn’t want to scare away people because it appeared too rugged,” but they did want to counteract the image of New Mexico being just a flat desert, Perillo said.

Santa Fe Mountain Adventures, which is in its first season of operation, combines outdoor activities such as hiking and mountain biking with cultural activities such as concerts, gallery showings, and pottery classes, and rolls them all together with health and wellness activities like yoga and meditation.

But it’s the outdoor activities, as the company’s name implies, that are the focus. Sieja, the adventure director, was the managing editor of Santa Fe’s Outside Magazine’s special issues, Outside Traveler and OutsideÕs Buyer’s Guide.

When Sieja and Perillo connected late last year, Santa Fe Mountain Adventures—an idea that had been germinating in Perillo’s head for several years—finally got off the ground. Perillo used his business background—he was a managing partner for Accenture, a management consulting and tech services company—to network with local outdoor companies to provide guides and services at a discount.

Santa Fe Mountain Adventures offers fishing through The Reel Life, river rafting through New Wave Rafting Co., horseback riding through Tererro Stables in Pecos, mountain biking through Sun Mountain Bicycles and golf through Black Mesa in Española.

Through Sieja’s connections to Outside Magazine, the company obtained Outside’s official endorsement and advertising space in the magazine. Customers also get a one-year subscription to the magazine included in the stay.

On a typical day, “adventurers” are shepherded from activity to activity throughout their vacation for flat fees ranging from $100 to $130 per day, depending on which partner hotel the guest chooses to stay at and how many days they participate.

Sieja said the company has drawn diverse group of people so far, but “the common denominator would be people that want a little adventure, but also people who want a little cush, a nice place to stay, a good meal, a glass of wine.”

Not the people who would otherwise be backpacking, in other words. Sieja told a group of travel writers visiting from out of town recently that Santa Fe Mountain Adventures, like Outside Magazine, is aiming to pick up business from a new and emerging market: generally affluent travelers who enjoy the outdoors and are interested in a holistic, healthy lifestyle.

Hard-core mountaineers or wilderness hounds have been noticeable absent from the company’s clientele thus far.

Instead, vacationers—including, Perillo said, a senior Ford Motor Co. executive and a hedge fund manager from “out east”—participate in easier hikes such as the one the travel writers were brought on, the Rio en Medio trail near Tesuque. Bill Neuwirth, an outdoor educator and ecology professor for Santa Fe community College, was the guide.

The trail was not meant to be strenuous, as Neuwirth and Sieja explained, but it was meant to be an adventure in its own way—something with “more meaning,” as Sieja said.

Neuwirth pointed out everything from poison ivy to deer trails and escorted the visitors across several river crossings. On the schedule for the rest of the day: a yoga class in the afternoon and a concert in the evening.

Customers also get discounts on spa treatments at local hotels, including Inn of the Anasazi, La Fonda, and Inn and Spa at Loretto.

As Perillo said, “They want to go out in the wilderness and then come back to a nice meal, or in some cases a massage and a facial to reward themselves for their activities earlier in the day.”

For more information, visit www.santafemountainadventures.com.

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