Are We There Yet?

A new study commissioned by Expedia, and conducted by GfK, took a look at the joys and perils of family travel, examining the issues parents face when planning family vacations, the difficulties that can arise while travelling, and why travel is such an important feature of their family lives.

Expedia’s Family Travel Study found that 94% of American parents who have travelled with their children take at least one trip with their family per year. Another 27 % take two trips per year and 10% take three or more.

In fact, during the recent Family Travel Association Summit, the Family Travel Association reported that family travel now accounts for a full one-third of all leisure trips booked in the United States.

Expedia’s Sarah Gavin observed that: “Family travellers tell us all too often that travelling with kids involves more mystery and mayhem than magic.”

The survey looked at travelling during holidays and the difficulties of getting a family through security, with all of the shoe-removal, baggage search and liquid disposal it requires and the fact that one struggling family slows the line for every passenger that follows.

Yet despite the challenges, 70% of parents who travel “agree or strongly agree” that their favorite childhood memories involve a family vacation.

Other findings reveal that:

• 76% of U.S. parents say that traveling with their children is “more play than work.”
• 89% of parents say that it is more important for their children have fun on vacation than themselves; about 10% feel a parent’s fun is paramount.
• 4% of families bring a babysitter with them to share in the child-care responsibilities.
• 80% of parents “agree or strongly agree” that they have grown more sympathetic toward parents who are traveling with children since having kids of their own.
• 23% of American parents reported that vacations with children feel “more like work than play.”

For more on Expedia’s Family Travel Study, go to http://www.expedia.com .