The wander years: Travel Weekly

Experiences that create memories

Regardless of the group’s makeup and spending ability, attendees agreed that experiences are key for family travelers.

“We are seeing that experiences matter over budgets,” said Murphy. 

Trafalgar Tours has been expanding its family program and building experiences with intent, Hepp said.  

“People want to experience something together, whether it’s a gondola school in Rome or cooking class in Costa Rica,” he said. “They’re building things together.”

Another TTC brand, Costsaver, has been attracting many multigenerational families, Hepp added. They are most interested in free time, when members of the traveling party can experience things on their own during the day, then come together and share those experiences over dinner. TTC has also seen increased demand for custom group programs for families.

Guests are staying longer, so they don’t have to rush experiences, according to Truty. And in another boon to advisors, they are skewing toward higher room categories. They are interested in immersing themselves in destinations where they can create family memories, he said.

“I think that’s more valuable now than it’s ever been following what Covid did, where it took that element of time away from us,” he said.

That’s also true at sea. NCL’s Sims said customer surveys coming out of the pandemic were loud and clear: Travelers wanted more destinations.

As a result, the cruise line is spending more time in ports and fewer days at sea, Sims said. NCL has also created more family-focused shore excursions.

Some advisors and suppliers have noted that the desire for family experiences has led to a shift away from kids clubs at sea and at resort properties.

“It’s more about what they can all do together, experiential,” Westerman said. 

In fact, her agency has seen a huge increase in its DMC business, she said, for both land vacations and to plan private tours when cruising clients are in ports.

Donna Douglas, assistant director of sales for the Bermuda Tourism Authority, also cited a shift away from kids clubs toward experiences that keep families together. And while hotel stays on the island remain popular, multigenerational travelers are also looking to rent five- and six-bedroom homes to keep everyone under the same roof.

Bermuda is among the destinations benefitting as more families set their sights overseas. 

Douglas said there has been an uptick in multigenerational travel to the island. 

Germany is seeing more interest from families in general and specifically those who are luxury travelers looking for five- and nearly five-star hotels, said George Vella, head of sales for North America for the German National Tourist Office.

Emma Eddington, trade and marketing coordinator for Tourism and Events Queensland, Australia, said the family travel segment from the U.S. market to Queensland was up 14% year over year as of July 2025. And it’s a lucrative segment, Eddington said: While Queensland can’t tease out family travel spend, U.S. visitors overall are spending a record amount when they visit the state in the northeast part of the continent.

Those destinations might want to thank the younger generation for being chosen: According to the Family Travel Association survey, the majority of families let children assist with vacation planning, a trend that advisors and suppliers are also seeing.

If clients’ children are 10 or older, Westerman said, her agency does a kids consultation after talking with the adults. She finds they often have their own agendas, thanks to seeing destination-related content on Instagram or YouTube.

Sojourney Travel’s Switzer has noticed the same thing.

Parents, she said, “really are totally taking all of their kids’ perspectives and their opinions and all that good stuff.”

A few months ago, Vella got a call from a travel advisor who had a family of six headed to Germany. The children wanted to incorporate cycling into the trip. The German National Tourist Office connected the advisor with a DMC that facilitated everything.

“She said the family loved it,” Vella said, adding that they told their advisor they otherwise would not have considered that kind of an addition. “It was thanks to the kids themselves that were imposing on their family that they had to incorporate cycling. They are definitely part of the decision.”

In response to the level of influence children now have, NCL has imagery and social media marketing that is targeted toward younger generations, Sims said. It highlights ship features they would find attractive, like the cruise line’s racetracks at sea. He then referenced the 1983 film “National Lampoon’s Vacation” when patriarch Clark Griswold packs his family up for a cross-country theme park trip. 

“It’s come a long way since the roadtrip to Wally World, where Clark had every detail [lined up],” Sims said. “The house of mud, the biggest ball of twine, the whole thing. It’s definitely changed.”