C’mon people; where’s your imagination?

Recently Travelocity, the travel company owned by billion-dollar Sabre Holdings, held a survey asking customers about their dream vacations.  What Travelocity found out, it seems, is that there’s not a lot of imagination out there when it comes to a great many travelers.               

The Travelocity site decided to find out where families would go if money was no object.  Take a look at some of the places people would go.  Orlando?  I take it that means Disney World and the other entertainment parks in that Florida city. Fair enough.   

Oh please. If money didn’t matter would you head off to central Florida? If you could go to Tokyo, Beijing, or Calcutta you’d go to Orlando?                        

Granted, Orlando has more than just Disney World. You can also see Epcot, Sea World, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Plus there is the Universal Orlando Resort that’s made up of Universal Studios Florida, Universal’s Islands of Adventure (with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter), Wet and Wild Water Park, and who knows what else.             

Trip Advisor says there are 152 attractions in Orlando. 152? Seriously? Are they counting every McDonald’s?                     

I don’t have anything against Orlando.  It’s a great place and there are a lot of things to do there.  I’m just saying that of all the places in all the world, 9% of the people responding picked Orlando. 

Families

Travelocity’s most recent survey of customers found having kids doesn’t have to mean the end of travel. In fact, it turns out families who travel with children are more likely to have dream vacations planned than those respondents who do not. I can believe that – the logistics of traveling with kids seems to make one want to get it right.                                                    

Eighty-eight percent of respondents to the survey have a dream trip they would take if money was no object. Of those, the majority (60 percent) stated that having an authentic, local experience was what mattered most on their dream trip. The other 40 percent said it was more important to experience the best service possible.  Excuse me? They just want good service? If you want, “the best service possible” then go to a McDonald’s drive-thru. That’s great service – they’ll have you in and out with your order in minutes.                         

Kids and travel

“It’s telling that families who travel with children are more likely to have dream trips in mind than those who don’t travel with kids,” said Eileen Ogintz, family travel expert and author of the weekly syndicated column Taking the Kids. “They want to show children the world and know travel is the most wonderful gift you can give a young person. What families may not realize is their travel dreams are far more attainable than they may think.”    In terms of the type of trip parents would like to take with their children, a tour of a foreign city came in on top with 37 percent of the vote. The second-most popular choice was relax on a beach (22 percent. Um, relax on a beach? With kids? Why does this sound more like something for busy, stressed-out parents than for kids?), followed by take a cruise (18 percent), visit a theme park (12 percent) and see exotic wildlife (11 percent).

“Given the fact that parents named having a local experience and touring a foreign city as key factors of their family dream trip, it’s no surprise that Europe was the number-one destination they would pick,” said Genevieve Shaw Brown, Editorial Director at Travelocity. “Fall is a perfect time to explore Europe, with lovely weather and fewer crowds. Top that off with cheap flights and hotel deals that don’t exist in the summer months and suddenly a dream vacation is within reach.”

Family Travel Dream Vacations

*the remaining 11 percent of respondents chose “other” as their dream destination.

I want to meet those other 11% of respondents.  In fact, I’d like to travel with them.  People who chose “other” instead of Europe or Hawaii or Orlando sound like my kind of people.   

Yes, Europe is nice; yes, Hawaii is the perfect tourist destination for those wanting a more-or-less tropical vacation on the cheap (at least during the off season); and yes, Orlando is a wonderful place where you can pay others to run your vacation for you.  But how could only 2% choose Asia?                                          

Think of all the places there are to visit in the vast area of Asia.  Why did only 2% choose it?  Could it be that too few people know enough about the diverse areas and places of Asia? Do we really not know enough about Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Hong Kong, Brunei, and so many other nations to know how special and unique they are?                    

I don’t know about you, but I’m joining up with the 11% who chose “other” as their destinations. I’ll be with them in some other place having the time of my life.