Multigenerational travel is here to stay
Family travel, especially multigenerational family travel, is having a big moment, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Why? People aren’t taking time with extended family for granted. Whether recreating memories or making up for lost time, families are taking trips to experience cities, attractions, and adventures together.
The appeal behind family travel isn’t new. In fact, family travel has been part of travel and recreation as long as travel and recreation have been around, but multigenerational family travel is a growing segment for several reasons:
Scarcity: The pandemic limited travel and halted family gatherings; that scarcity is one of the drivers behind today’s multigenerational travel trend. Excitement about the return of travel hasn’t waned since restrictions were lifted. Traveling together is a treasured way to make up for lost time.
Nostalgia: Nostalgia is a powerful motivator in today’s surge of multigenerational family travel. The emotional pull of memories and beloved traditions is inspiring many travelers. Parents want to recreate vacations and experiences they had during their own childhoods with their children—and there’s no better way to walk down memory lane than to bring the grandparents along too.
Resources: Travel requires time and money, and grandparents tend to have both. Within the trend of multigenerational family travel, there’s a trend of grandparents and their grandchildren—who can range in age from six to 26—taking trips together because they’re looking for new ways to connect. Millennials and younger travelers research activities and locations they know their grandparents would enjoy, and grandparents are willing to foot the bill.
How to attract multigenerational travelers
To cater to multiple generations, travel marketers must reach each demographic individually while simultaneously creating meaningful experiences for the whole family to enjoy together. Make each person feel special and set the stage for nostalgic family moments.
The magic happens when you can market to all three generations. Incorporate surprise and delight moments for all ages. A kid-friendly destination has to offer something at the other end of the spectrum to give the grandparents and parents a moment to themselves. Carve out opportunities for the adults while children enjoy kid-friendly—not kid-centric—activities.
Along with individual attention for different generations, travel marketers have to set up opportunities for the family to create memories together. Destinations can design elements of traditional group travel for multigenerational travel:
Multi-room packages
Family-style dinners or cocktail receptions
Family portraits on site
Reunion-style activities, like s’mores on the beach or a guided hike
Multigenerational family travel is less about creating big family celebrations and more about experiencing a destination together. Travel marketers should focus on fine-tuning the anchor moments that bring the family together.
Marketing challenges to anticipate with multigenerational travel
Multigenerational travel requires a multigenerational marketing strategy. A wider audience allows for more opportunities to connect, but you can’t tell your story the same way to each demographic. Different generations have different values and needs, and they ingest content differently.
It may be extra work to create different content to sell the same experience to different demographics, but marketers have the opportunity to show how destinations don’t just serve one purpose or one person. They can appeal to all ages.
While grandparents may enjoy a long-form web story or a YouTube video, you can spark interest among younger generations through a quick, snackable read or a TikTok tour of your destination. Multiple entry points can inspire each generation if you create the content to reach them.
Marketing your destination
The best multigenerational travel experience isn’t nonstop family time. It’s about creating spaces for the family to unite for meaningful moments together. Your job is not to create a step-by-step itinerary; it’s to establish anchored moments of family togetherness with space in between to explore.
Multigenerational travel is a trend worth capitalizing on as a travel marketer. Destinations and attractions have an exciting opportunity to lean into what they can offer each generation. Let’s work together to determine how to create a memorable experience for the whole family.