Northstar

8 | www.travelweekly-asia.com COVER STORY: FAMILY TRAVEL The family that plays together stays together. I have certainly found this to be true. Every trip I have taken with my family has always resulted in us getting closer and knowing each other a little better. When I first started travelling for my work, I would make it a point to send postcards home to my nieces. I thought they would make them curious about the world and sure enough, after every trip, they would ask me about the places I'd been. As they got older, I made it a point that whenever I could, I'd travel with them and my mother – my sister unfortunately was tied to her work and could not make as much time available. Thus began our multi- generational trips – identified in the 2014 Virtuoso Luxe Report as the top travel trend for that year. Recent research reveals that family-centric travel accounts for more than 12.5% of the $1.07 trillion global tourism market. "Multigenerational Family Travel" – grandparents travelling with grandkids and their parents in between – is the stuff that travel agents dream of. Because of its complexity – each generation has different needs, it's still the segment that needs professional planning and booking. It's the biggest segment that continues to be booked at travel fairs whether in Singapore or Berlin. Unlike independent travel, it hasn't gone online and if you've ever planned for a family vacation, you know why. You need different things to amuse and entertain everyone, otherwise you know what happens – fights break out, especially if you've got over-active teenagers in tow. I recall a trip to Bangkok when I was perhaps a tad over-ambitious and decided to bring the entire family along – my two nephews, three nieces, my sister and her husband and my mother. The kids were all in their teens then, each beginning to have a mind of their own. The girls wanted to shop, the boys did not. My mother wanted to shop too but for different things. And for my sister and her husband, well, it was their chance for another honeymoon – you know, away from the day-to-day routine and anyway, Auntie's there to look after the kids. I think I returned from that vacation more exhausted than I'd begun with. But we had a lot of laughs over the fights as well – good or bad, you bond when you're stuck together in a foreign land. It wasn't just cities I took them to but into the jungle. One of the most unforgettable trips was to Sarawak where we had to travel from Kuching by road for two hours and then onto a longtail boat upriver to the Borneo Rainforest Lodge. The Lodge, run by Borneo Adventure, had just been built and it was really pioneering stuff. You sleep in longhouses just like the villagers nearby, no electricity, no hot water, no beds – we slept on mattresses on the wooden floor. That night, there was an almighty thunderstorm and as thunder and lightning ripped through our longhouse, my 12-year-old niece jumped up, petrified, and stepped on my glasses which I had removed for bed. I heard a crack and I knew my glasses were done for. Now I am as blind as a bat without aid and for the next two days, I lived in the jungle with my sunglasses. I think the villagers thought I was a celebrity or something. As soon as we got into Kuching town, I went to an optician who said he couldn't fix my spectacles but fortunately because only one side had been shattered, he put a black sticky tape on the broken lens and I walked around Kuching, looking and feeling like a pirate. Stories like these are still told around our family table and that's the magic of family travel – it creates memories that glue families together. Travel agents who understand that are the ones who will find gold in the market. Don't just sell packages, package experiences that families will thank you for. And think about the good you're doing for the world in the process – you're helping families stay together when you help them play together. FAMILIES THAT TRAVEL TOGETHER, STAY TOGETHER My 12-year-old niece jumped up, petrified, and stepped on my glasses. I heard a crack and I knew my glasses were done for. Yeoh Siew Hoon reports on the growing and important segment of family travel.

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