Travel – It’s Not Just for Adults Anymore

More and more children are traveling, with parents, grandparents, on vacations, cruises, study trips, sports excursions, and accompanying Mom or Dad on a business or convention trip.

According to the Travel Industry Association (TIA), more than 32 million business trips in 1998 included children, a 250 percent rise in 10 years. And that’s just in the United States. The trend is also apparent in Canada, Europe and the Far East.

Parents often cite compressed time schedules as the reason for talking the kids alone. Two working spouses, common in North America and Europe, and the increasingly common « blue-suit Mom, » battling the time pressure of being an executive and a parent, find it rewarding and economical to extend a business trip through the weekend, taking advantage of lower leisure travel oriented air fares and lower hotel rates.

Many parents and grandparents consider travel to be a positive educational experience for the kids. In a recent TIA survey, 22 percent of parents who took the family along on a business trip let their children miss school to travel with them – although in most cases (43 percent) the absence was just a single day.

Hotel, airlines, and rental car companies address the kid’s market with varying enthusiasm. Most, but not all, hotels feature a « kids stay free with parents (or grandparents) when sharing the room. » Disney and some other resort properties have specifically designed hotel rooms to accommodate mom, dad, the kids and grandma.

Family rooms or suites are increasingly found in urban hotels situated in major business and tourist destinations. Four Seasons sends a high chair, as well as a baby’s bed to the room of those traveling with infants. The Metropolis Hotel in downtown San Francisco offers a family suite with bunk beds, chalkboard and crayons, TV with kid’s cable channels and even a separate bathroom with splash toys.

Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton and Westin have activity programs for kids at various properties around the globe. While Mom or Dad are busy at work, brother and sister take classes, visit local sights or play sports – a short-term equivalent of packing the kids off to summer camp. No longer can a hotel easily differentiate between the business and leisure markets.

Some vehicle rental firms offer child car seats as a no-cost option, and airlines have become much more tolerant of parents’ lugging child safety seats and strollers into passenger cabins. American provides a complimentary amenity kit that features two diapers, a baby spoon and bib, and a coloring book, and most airlines now offer special meals for children. United Airlines, for instance, gives parents a choice of child, toddler or baby meals, as well as McDonald’s Friendly Skies (MFS) meals with burgers.

Singapore Airlines, a favorite of the Asia bound business traveler, has taken note of business travelers bringing the kids alone. They offer an interactive in-flight entertainment system in all classes. Nintendo games like Super Mario, F-Zero and Kirby’s Dream Course help keep the kids occupied on the long Pacific flights.

Cruises have long been a favorite for older travelers, many traditionally catering to a mature market interested in minimizing the hassle and planning associated with land based travel. Increasingly those mature travelers are taking their grandchildren along.

« Camp Carnival » is a feature of every Carnival Cruise Lines ship. Between a family breakfast and a family dinner, the younger set is kept busy with activities geared to their age group. These include competitions and classes for three age specific segments the « Junior Sailors » (ages 2 to 5), First Mates (ages 6 to 8), and Navigators (ages 9 to 12).

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has special children’s menus and seatings for dinner, so the grandparents can dine together at a later seating and with a menu better crafted to their tastes. « Teen centers, » with video games, elaborate baby-sitting facilities, and playrooms for younger children, are common on many cruise lines.

Campus vacations, while not originally designed for families, have quickly adapted to take advantage of the trend of traveling with children. What began as Cornell Adult University, during the summer at central New York’s famous Ivy League institution, now offers adult and family learning vacations on campus as well as seminars, study tours, and cruises to destinations all around the world, not just for adults for also targeted at the family market. Some of the programs are parallel – education for parents and/or grandparents combined with sports camps for the kids.

Even conventions, exhibitions and trade shows are starting to cater to delegates’ families. There has been an increase in frequency of such events booked at the end of June, right after school lets out. Many now commonly offer day trips and other family activities as well as evening events for both delegates and their families.

Elderhostel offers a wide variety of modestly priced intergenerational programs and vacation trips targeted at grandparents and grandchildren. A Google search returned 94 intergenerational programs offered by Elderhostel. One focuses on developing the relationship between grandmothers and their granddaughters, while another offers an intergenerational opportunity to learn about dinosaurs in Utah. One program for grandparents and grandchildren redefines the image of the elderly and the young.

The flight training program is an intensive introduction to flying in ground laboratories, aircraft simulators, as well as actual pilot training in a Cessna 172 single-engine aircraft. Another program takes the two generations to British Columbia where in a safe harness and supportive environment they climb a rock bluff, rappel from a cliff, swing like Tarzan on a zip line, and solve problems cooperatively in a ropes course.

The traditional market segment boundaries are changing. With the aging of the baby boomers over the next decade, expect the grandparent – grandchild travel market to become a major target for the travel industry.

Thomas Cullen is Associate Professor at the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University.

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More and more grandparents are travelling with their grandchildren