[zeveb]

> With all the urban young people (esp. women IMO) who love to travel the world with disposable income (no families, marrying late), NG has no selling relationship with them.

Given its mission to increase and diffuse geographical knowledge, it's remarkable to me that National Geographic doesn't operate a travel-services agency (insurance, tours, guidebooks—that kind of thing). It seems like that should be right in its wheelhouse, and could be profitable enough to fund its research projects, if competently run.

[yasth]

They have a travel wing. http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/ Including a partnership with a cruise line. They also have a fairly extensive travel publishing section http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/category/books/travel... . (They even have a very lightly branded travel insurance partnership http://www.travelinsure.com/custom/ngs/ )

Obviously discoverability, and advertising of these is less than ideal. A lot of it is actually verging on overextending to the brand, like "The Dog Lover's Guide to Travel" just doesn't seem a good brand expansion.

[zeveb]

Wow, I never knew, despite my folks & grandparents being members my entire life, and it's not even on their Wikipedia page, either. As you note, the discoverability doesn't seem very good.

I guess it boils down to the 'competently run' part: if one is going to run a profit-making enterprise, one needs to advertise!

[ajmurmann]

They do have a travel agency. http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com