Blog ❯ What trends can we expect for family travel and tourism in 2022?
What trends can we expect for family travel and tourism in 2022?
With borders reopening all over the world, family travel is on the rise. It can be difficult to predict trends when there’s still a huge level of uncertainty around the pandemic, but there are lots of tourism trends from 2021 that are here to stay. Focusing on family-friendly content and entertainment for kids is a strong theme, but here are some other things to keep in mind when you want to appeal to more families.
Families are eager to travel, but still have concerns
The Delta variant has made a lot of families wary of international travel, so it looks like staycations are here to stay. Some of the favorites from 2021 included:
Domestic travel
RVing and road trips
Seaside vacations
Vacation home rentals
Camping
Bébé Voyage, a travel community powered by a blog, recently shared their family travel and tourism trend predictions for after the pandemic. They curate content specifically for parents with young kids and have seen a wide variety of questions being asked about family-friendly travel options over the past couple of months. In a recent community survey, they discovered that 70% of families were not only willing to travel, but they wanted to spend more time on vacation after saving money for a trip.
However, 97% of people who responded to the survey said they were either very worried or somewhat worried about COVID-19. Which is a huge amount! But it isn’t stopping people from going on vacations, it’s just making them reevaluate their choices and think wisely about their options.
Some things you can do to help families feel safe on their vacation include:
Listing all safety and hygiene-related measures in an easy to locate place on your website
Provide details on COVID guidelines you’re following and expect other guests to follow
Families are looking for more travel advice
Whether it’s from a professional travel agent, a family blogger, or a friend with young kids, parents are looking for more guidance than ever when it comes to their travel plans.
There are so many extra things that parents need to consider when planning trips now.
Do they need negative COVID tests from each family member to go on and return from this vacation?
Does everyone over the age of 12 need to be vaccinated?
Is there an isolation period required when they return home?
The answers to these questions are constantly changing, and it can be hard to keep track of. It can also be stressful trying to find all this information, and make sure it’s correct. So parents are turning to other parents, family bloggers, and professionals too.
In August 2021, the American Society of Travel Advisors predicted that 77% of their members were facing closures. Although the pandemic had a huge negative impact on the travel industry, it has been beneficial for travel advisors. Last year, 57% of respondents in Travelweeks’s COVID-19 Consumer Survey said that they were more likely to seek out the services of travel agents when booking their next trip.
Parents trust the opinions of other parents, so it’s important for businesses to focus on offering high-quality family-friendly content and entertainment for kids too, to ensure great word-of-mouth reviews.
And finally, families are doing more research online than ever. Some travel websites that provide family-friendly vacation offerings and resources that parents find helpful include:
There are lots of popular family blog style websites that offer helpful advice and insights too:
Families want to travel in their “bubbles”
Many travel experts are predicting that multi-generational travel will remain popular in 2022, and it’s easy to see why.
People who are very concerned about their safety don’t want to mix too much with other groups, making travelling with extended family members a better option. People went months without seeing close family members during the early stages of the pandemic, so it’s only natural that they want to spend more quality time with each other now.
Of course, there are specific travel options that are more suitable for the needs of a multigenerational family on vacation, but there are plenty of things you can do to adapt your business to cater to their needs too. Making sure you have family-friendly entertainment for all members of the family is a must, it’s important to make families feel appreciated and seen. Things like kids’ clubs, babysitting services, or even arts and crafts for kids mean a lot to families.
Because they’re very suitable for multigenerational family trips, RV and camper sales have increased significantly since the pandemic began. Outdoorsy – who have been described as the Airbnb of RV rentals – saw a record year of sales in 2020 after RVing became one of the most popular choices for family travel. Outdoorsy saw 400% growth year-over-year before the pandemic, but it surged 4600% from April 2020 to October 2020. Much of their growth came from younger families and millennials – millennial RV bookings grew 70% from 2019 to 2020.
Quieter and more remote vacation spots are becoming increasingly popular, and it looks like it’s going to take a while for bigger more popular attractions to get back to normal. Whatever sector your business is in, it’s more important now than ever to focus on families and ensure you’re offering entertainment and family-friendly content for every member of the family!
About Kidzsmart Communications
We believe your content should be more than just another coloring book. Kidzsmart is a creative agency that is is your spokesperson to modern families, and we’re dedicated to contributing to the greater wellbeing of kids.
For over 20 years we’ve worked with the government, healthcare, and educations sectors as well as global brands in the restaurant and hospitality, tourism, and professional sports industries. Our team has the expertise to expand your family outreach, and we have the tools to do it right. Top of feed means top of mind, and we’re dedicated to creating greater family content that makes a meaningful impact on the lives of kids and families!
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