Multigenerational trips increasingly come with an accessibility need in tow — and families are prepared to spend extra to get those needs right, according to new research from Fora.
The host agency’s inaugural accessible travel report, out today, found that 55% of families planning a multigenerational trip in the next three years say someone in their group would need an accommodation, whether that’s a step-free room, a gluten-free menu, or a sensory-friendly kids’ program. Among those families, 78% said they would pay more for a trip that properly meets everyone’s needs — well above the 42% of multigenerational travelers overall who said they’d spend more per person than on a typical vacation.
For the report, Fora surveyed 1,359 of its advisors at the Certified level or above, along with a nationally representative sample of 2,592 U.S. consumers polled by YouGov.
The findings suggest accessible travel has moved well past niche status for advisors: 67% of those surveyed have booked a trip for a client with an accessibility need. Among advisors who have, 34% said such trips now account for more than 10% of their bookings, and 18% put the figure above a quarter of their business. Nearly half (48%) said demand for multigenerational trips with accessibility needs has grown over the past year.
These are not budget bookings, either. Among advisors who have booked accessible travel, 44% said their largest such booking in the past 12 months topped $10,000, and 78% said accessible trips generate the same or higher spend than their average trip. More than half (52%) have booked a cruise for a client with accessibility needs, and 48% have booked a luxury hotel.
The clients tend to stick around, too. Fifty-five percent of advisors who have booked accessible travel said clients with accessibility needs are more likely than average to become repeat clients, and 90% of consumers who previously worked with an advisor on an accessible trip said they would use that advisor again — compared with 68% for other trip types.
Nor is this solely a seniors story: While 64% of consumers with an accessibility need in their group pointed to an older adult, 36% cited a parent or another adult aged 18 to 64, and 23% cited a child or teenager. One in five of these families said the needs span more than one generation.
The biggest pain point — and arguably the clearest advisor value proposition — is information. Among consumers planning an accessible multigenerational trip, 86% said confirming accessibility details before booking would be important, yet 90% of advisors who book this travel said online accessibility information can be incomplete, outdated, or contradictory. Excursions and activities topped the list of hardest topics to research (47%), followed by hotel room and bathroom details (44%) and on-property access (41%). Even with advisors calling ahead and confirming details in writing, 31% have had a client arrive at a property to find a promised accessibility feature missing or unusable.
There are bright spots. Nearly half of advisors (47%) said the industry’s accessibility efforts have improved over the past two years, with hotels earning the most credit (40%), followed by cruise lines (25%). When advisors named their go-to brands for accessibility, Royal Caribbean led cruise mentions at 26%, with Celebrity Cruises (21%), Norwegian Cruise Line (14%), Viking (12%), and Disney Cruise Line (9%) rounding out the top five. On the hotel and resort side, Disney dominated at 40% of brand mentions, ahead of Hilton (14%), Marriott (12%), and Hyatt (7%), while Sandals and Beaches drew specific praise for handling autism- and sensory-related needs.
Still, one finding points to how far the industry has to go. Among advisors for whom accessible bookings make up 10% or less of their business, 43% said it’s difficult to find accommodations that truly meet a client’s needs. Among those where such bookings exceed half their business, that share jumps to 73% — meaning the advisors doing this work most often are the ones hitting the wall hardest, a sign the gap sits in supplier infrastructure and information rather than advisor expertise.
Fora’s consumer survey, conducted by YouGov, ran online from July 24 to 28; the advisor survey ran August 5 to 17.
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