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What’s more, not only strict parent/child groupings took family vacations. The survey found that the incidence of family travel is significantly higher than the number of households with children. In fact, one out of five (20%) survey respondents is a grandparent, and two-thirds of those (67%) took at least one vacation with their grandchildren last year.

Toby Nash, or Utah-based Cruise & Travel Masters, confirmed that his agency is seeing this trend. “Multi-generational travel is exploding for us. Grandparents don’t want to die with their money. They want to pay to have memories with their children and grandchildren in fun destinations.”

However, the survey found that families are more likely than other types of vacationers to take a vacation in their local area (less than 50 miles from home).  Furthermore, families are prone to making vacation plans themselves versus contacting a travel agent.

Virtually all family traveler respondents (99%) said they have access to the Internet at home and most have gone online to get information about travel suppliers (89%) and make reservations (87%).

Types of Trips

Family travelers are equally as likely to take both weekend trips (73%) of four nights or less including a Saturday, as they are to take extended trips (71%) of five consecutive nights or more.

According to Nash this finding mirrors what he sees among his family clients. “Some [vacations] tie into long school weekends, and some just flat out pull them out of school to experience the week.”

In some ways, week trips are a better value, he added, because the seven-day prices are better financially (per day) than the three and four day trips.

Beach and/or lake destinations are the most popular type of family vacation, cited by 33% of family travelers, but 26% also stated they took a theme park vacation, and 9% visited an all-inclusive resort.

Nash told TMR that most of the family vacations he books are water-based, especially when they’re multi-generational.  “Water is always a key component to a multi-generational vacation. Most want ocean and pool, and possibly (staying) together under one roof (house or villa).”

Just under seven out of ten (69%) family travelers took a vacation last year to celebrate a life event, with milestone birthdays and anniversaries topping the list.

Despite the fact that family travelers usually need more lead time to plan, 31% of respondents to the Ypartnership survey said they took a “last minute” trip last year, departing an average of six days after deciding to take the trip.

One piece of good news for travel sellers, one-third (32%) of respondents said they are interested in taking a cruise vacation during the next two years.

Destinations families are interested in visiting in the coming years include: Hawaii (73%), the national parks (71%), and Orlando (59%).

Rosy Outlook

Although families were as affected as any other group of travelers during the recent recession, most report they are optimistic about the future.

Nearly eight out of ten (78%) of respondents said they are happier now than they were ten years ago, and 71% said they are very or extremely optimistic about the future of their children. Almost as many (70%) said they are very or extremely optimistic about their own future, 58% are very or extremely optimistic about the future of the company they work for and 55% are very or extremely optimistic about the future of their job.