FTA Spotlight: Re/Defining Family Travel > The Changing Faces of Family Travel
This is the discussion page for the first of 12 core family travel topics being presented in collaboration with the Family Travel Association (FTA).
Our topic is The Changing Faces of Family Travel (read the short essay in this link first or review the summary below).
Summary: Open most newspapers, magazines and brochures, and the majority of articles or ads targeting families still features a mother, father and their two children. In travel promotions, they're smilingly and ably cavorting on a beach or admiring a recognizable attraction. But who really clings to the notion that this is the way things are today? What about the multi-generational family groups, extended and "blended" clans, and households with a single parent, two dads or two moms, a mix of races and cultures, special needs or "voluntary kin"? Or any combinations of the above? Where and how can all kinds of families find what they need to facilitate their travel desires and feel welcome wherever they go?
We are very keen to learn what you think of the changing faces of traveling families, so please share your thoughts below.
About the Family Travel Association and Re/Define Family Travel Campaign
The Family Travel Association is an organization that aims to inspire families to travel together by bringing together the world’s leading suppliers, resources and experts on traveling with kids.
At the end of September this year, the FTA is hosting its first annual Summit. Over the course of two full days, an assembly of industry executives and family travel experts will expand upon topics essential to a rounded understanding of the challenges of family travel.
In anticipation of that, Outbounding is collaborating with the FTA to count down the 12 weeks leading up to the Summit by spotlighting the 12 core family travel topics to the public. Each week, as part of its FTA Spotlight: Re/Define Family Travel campaign, we will open a discussion board in where you can feedback in reaction to an introductory essay written about the topic.
Following the Summit, Outbounding will again join forces with the FTA as it initiates a 12-month process of digging much deeper into each of these topics, one per month. By the time the FTA gathers for its next Summit in September 2016, it expects to have a much more powerful grasp of what's at play in family travel, fueled in part by your input here.