As travel advisors and tour operators you can play a crucial role in helping families plan memorable and enjoyable vacations and holidays. There are infinite options, and destinations in travel for families, ranging from cruise holidays, to the all popular beach vacations.
Before you start planning have an in-depth discussion with the client to enable you to pinpoint exactly what they want. Here are some basic, but important guidelines for planning family trips for your clientele:
1. Understand Your Clients' Needs and Preferences:
- Age and interests of children: Find out the ages and interests of the children, or their teenagers when planning their activities and destinations.
- Budget: be clear in determining the family's budget to help select suitable accommodations, transportation, and activities to do some sums for the entire holiday.
- Travel style: Discuss with them whether the family prefers a relaxed pace or a more adventurous itinerary.
- Special needs: Find out to be aware of any special needs or dietary restrictions for any family members that you may need to fulfil for their vacation.
- Consider family-friendly destinations: With so many possibilities, and after your discussion with your clients, you can now research destinations that offer a variety of activities and attractions suitable for families.
- Think about the season: Offer them a few different choices and recommend a destination with favourable weather conditions during their desired travel dates.
- Factor in travel time: What is the length of their holiday? You need to know in order to consider the length of the journey, flight times, and potential layovers when planning the itinerary.
- Mix of activities: make it memorable for them by including a mix of relaxing activities, cultural experiences, and outdoor adventures to cater to everyone’s different interests.
- Consider children's schedules: For small kids try and plan activities around children's nap times and their mealtimes to avoid over stimulation and meltdowns.
- Build in flexibility: Everyone needs time out or Me Time on a family holiday so give some free time to allow for some flexibility in the itinerary to accommodate any unexpected changes or spontaneous activities.
- Family-friendly options: here you have infinite options as well so discuss whether they prefer hotels, resorts, or vacation villa rentals that offer amenities like children's clubs, pools, and play areas.
- Location: For the above cases try and recommend accommodations that are conveniently located to beaches, fun attractions, with suitable transportation options to get there.
- Safety: Importantly you should make sure accommodations are safe and secure for families.
- Consider the family's comfort: Choose transportation options that are suitable for children, such as flights with direct connections or comfortable ground transportation.
- Plan for luggage: Find out luggage restrictions for flights to ensure that the transportation options can accommodate the family's luggage.
- Consider car rentals: If the family plans to explore a destination independently on road trips they will let you know and in this instance you can help them to arrange for a car rental.
- Destination information: let them know they can research information about the destination online but still assist in sharing information about local attractions, transportation options, and cultural customs.
- Safety tips: Further offer them safety tips for traveling with children, such as avoiding crowded areas and keeping an eye on children.
- Emergency contacts: Share your contact numbers as well as emergency contact information for the destination.
- Travel insurance: As always mentioned in travel planning, recommend travel insurance from your partner insurers to protect against unexpected events.
- Visa assistance: Check passports are up to date and assist with visa applications if required.
- Currency exchange: Know what monetary system is used at the destination and help clients exchange currency before their trip.
Knowing the key to successful family travel is to tailor the itinerary to the family's unique needs and preferences.
