Each year, major publications all over the world publish the top tourism trends and destinations for that particular year. For a few years now, sustainable travel has been featured prominently on those lists. We at FindYourItaly also care greatly about sustainability, local communities and the environment. If you’re organizing family-friendly tours of Italy as a travel agent or company, you should take the following tourism trends into account.
5 Tourism Trends to Consider in Your Italy Family Tours
1. Health and Well-being Get More Important
Bookings for wellness retreats have soared in recent years as an increasing number of travelers use their vacation time to take care of themselves. While previously many travelers “sinned” while on holiday, nowadays many focus on keeping, nourishing and improving both their physical and mental well-being.
Modern families, too, are increasingly dedicated to the health of all family members. As such, active Italy family tours get more and more popular.
2. Learning New Things Is Becoming the Most Popular Souvenir
Getting new experiences and learning new skills have become an essential part of a family trip in 2019. Cooking lessons, dancing or yoga classes, artistic workshops,… All of them are in high demand by the modern-day traveling family.
This noteworthy trend is also beneficial for local communities. Since these experiences in Italy can only really be offered by people who live there (traditional cooks, folklore dancers, artists and artisans), the locals who work in the travel industry reap the rewards from this evolution.
3. Activities Need to Cater to the Entire Family
In 2019, both children and grandparents are involved in the family trip planning process. Parents take into consideration the wishes of their children, while also being attentive to the needs and desires of their own parents.
Therefore, as a tour operator providing Italy family tours, you simply must include activities suitable for the entire family. That’s not to say that some activities can’t cater solely to adults, though (wine tastings!). But in general, there should be plenty of fun, casual things to do with the whole family.
4. More and More Travelers Seek Sustainability
Sustainability is the keyword of many tourism trends this year. From wellness and outdoor activities to culinary experiences, it’s essential for travel agents to focus on sustainability.
On this warming globe, it’s as important as ever to ensure that your family-friendly tours in Italy don’t have any negative consequences for the environment. Green sensibility is important now and will only get more popular in the coming years. Additionally, local communities, too, thrive when they get involved in the regional tourism industry.
Carbon-neutral, zero-waste, eco-friendly and sustainable travel will only become more important in the near future. As a tourism professional, you simply need to jump on this bandwagon and set yourself up for success in the future by offering sustainable Italy family tours.
5. Genealogy Trips Are on the Rise
Especially among Americans, but also in some European countries, genealogy travel has become super-popular. With the rise of genetics-testing services, many descendants from expats are now able to trace their roots back to a certain region in Italy.
This results in an influx of visitors who want to see where their ancestors were from. Since millions of people emigrated from Italy over the centuries, this presents a massive demographic to Italian tour operators. By being present in local communities and offering sustainable, locally based activities, you can offer “foreign” visitors a real insight into where their family was from. It might even make them feel actually Italian!
If you’re looking for sustainable and family-friendly packages to include in your listings, feel free to check our tours for groups page.