With year-end school holidays in full swing, digital travel platform Agoda’s Family Travel Trend survey 2022 reveals that four out of five travellers will take a vacation with immediate family in the next 12 months and, while travelling with friends proves more popular than travelling with extended family, still more than half (52%) are keen to catch up with relatives for their vacation.

Travellers from Singapore (61%), Taiwan (61%) and Vietnam (59%) are most likely to take at least one trip with immediate family.  Meanwhile, people from The Philippines (47%), Indonesia (40%) and Malaysia (35%) are most likely to plan two or more family jaunts in the coming year.  When it comes to vacationing with extended family, its travellers from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam that take the top three spots, with those from Japan, Korea, and Singapore least likely to take the whole family along for their travels.

“The more the merrier for holidays seems to be the message across Southeast Asia, India and beyond this year as Asia finally reopens for travel. The Agoda’s Family Travel Survey shows people really want to enjoy the company of friends or extended family on their vacations with more than 80% of travellers planning to travel with immediate family and 52% opting to travel with other relatives too,” explained Enric Casals, associate vice president, southeast asia and oceania, Agoda Partner Services.

Friends reuniting
Australians are renowned for their love of their mates, but it seems it doesn’t translate to going on holiday with them, with travellers from Australia ranking only 9^th most likely to take a trip with friends this year, knocked off the top spot by travellers from the Philippines, followed by Vietnamese and Indian travellers.

2023 Value hunters
When it comes to travelling with families or in a group traveler worldwide are seeking more value for their trips with Budget Hotels, Agoda Homes vacation rentals and Inclusive Resorts cited as the top three group travel preferences.

“Family travellers often have more complex requirements when choosing their holiday accommodation. Often, they need more space, perhaps with cooking facilities as offered by Agoda Homes, or the services such as babysitting, kids’ clubs, extra beds or interconnecting rooms offered by family-friendly hotels.  Being able to search on one platform, like Agoda, for accommodation, flights, ground transportation and fun filled activities at the destination takes away a lot of the hassle of travel planning, meaning there is more time to relax and enjoy spending time with loved ones,” Enric Casals, continued.

Travellers from Philippines (59%), India (44%) and South Korea (38%) showed a high preference for budget friendly hotels, while those from Indonesia (42%), Malaysia (39%), and Taiwan (38%) preferred vacation rentals which tend to offer additional facilities such as kitchens or separate living and sleeping areas. This is in contrast to almost half of Japanese travellers (43%) who favored chain hotels as their accommodation of choice and 34% of Thai travellers who leaned towards the convenience of all-inclusive resorts.

Border closures continue to concern travellers
Despite travel optimism and growth out pacing pre COVID levels, 77% of travellers globally indicate some concern about international borders closing again while they are overseas.  Travellers from most recently opened markets including South Korea and Japan are most concerned, in comparison to those from markets that quickly removed border restrictions including US, Australia and India.