The family travel market continues to grow and a recent survey of parents conducted by Kalahari Resorts & Conventions reveals that, in 2019, a vast majority of families plan to travel.
This aligns with research from GlobalData that shows family travel growing exponentially year over year with a predicted 376 million family vacations taken in 2022.
The Kalahari Resorts & Conventions research found that families are looking to spend time together and vacations provide an optimal way to do that. Ninety-one percent of parents said they plan to take a family vacation this year, with an average of three family vacations planned and at an average spend of $300 a day.
Parents are looking for a break in addition to family bonding time and they are willing to pay for it. In fact, moms and dads said that they would pay an average of 39 percent more if it was guaranteed their children would have something to keep them entertained the entire time. Even more parents-39 percent-said they'd pay 50 percent more.
FOMO (fear of missing out) isn't something that affects just the younger generations: Parents admit they are getting their vacation inspiration from their social media feeds. Sixty-one percent said that they have chosen a family vacation destination based on someone else's photos on social media.
They also use their social media feeds just like everyone else with 20 percent admitting that they post vacation photos to show off to friends.
In a more disturbing trend, 45 percent of parents actually said that they would rather take their smartphones on vacation than clean underwear.
Travel agents should listen up: One of the things that families most struggle with is trying to find a vacation destination that makes everyone happy. Fifty percent of parents said that it's harder to plan a vacation the whole family would enjoy than to get their kids off of social media. Nearly 60 percent of Millennial parents said this was true.
The Kalahari Resorts survey also found that a lot of parents are missing out on what they would like to do on vacation. Seventy-six percent of dads and 67 percent of moms reported that they have given up what they wanted to do while on vacation to keep the peace.
While parents are giving up some of what they want, they are not giving up on the booze. Alcohol is a deal breaker for 50 percent of parents who said they wouldn't take a vacation somewhere they couldn't drink-and can anyone blame them?
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
