Private group travel may be one of the biggest travel trends of 2024. A recent survey by luxury travel advisors at Embark Beyond found that 61% of Americans are interested in traveling with extended families or a small group of friends next year.
I asked Jack Ezon, Embark's founder, to explain this shift to group travel among American travelers and how it might affect your next trip. Ezon recently coined the term "grand gatherings" to describe these small, private trips.
Why do people want to travel together?
We've seen a shift in the purpose of travel after the pandemic. It's much more about connection.
What kind of connection?
People are starting to realize the importance of reconnecting with the people they really care about.Travel is the best way to connect to others, since it takes you out of the inertia of your regular routine. It allows you to focus on the now, the present — on where you are and who you're with.
How does travel allow you to do that?
Traveling opens you up to so many things that you just can’t focus on between carpools, commuting and preparing dinner. The drive for connection has generated more demand for multigenerational families to be proactive in trying to program experiences that bring people closer together.
So is this trend going beyond just renting a vacation home for the week?
Yes, people aren't just hanging out anymore. They're having a Glow-themed party by the pool one night, a beach Olympics where the whole family gets involved, and even a "Chopped"-style cooking contest.
At Embark, we're calling these groups grand gatherings. It's a new category that we define as groups of travelers ranging from 10 to 50 guests. With the exception of multigenerational families, it is a category with little comparative history.
That sounds like more of a team-building exercise for a corporation.
We're actually retrofitting corporate team-building experiences for families now. We're finding that concepts that take ordinary people out of their comfort zones and push them back together help transform them. Fulfilling experiences build stronger connections.
Who's traveling together?
The concept of the multigenerational group trip has extended into general social affinity groups. We're now seeing groups made up of five or six couples, four or five unrelated families, and even small groups of friends with a common interest.
Why are they doing this?
People want to create connections like families do, even if they don’t share the same DNA. What’s even more interesting is that the types of affinity groups seem to reinvent themselves every day. They can literally be a group of people interested in food, art or fashion.
What percentage of your business are these group trips?
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The passport you hold is a powerful tool when it comes to effortlessly visiting countries around the world.And some passports provide far more access than others, according to the Henley Passport Index.The just-released 2024 index shows that for the first time in 19 years of producing the ranking, six countries are tied for the top spot of having the most powerful passports.The countries leading the ranking are France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Spain—meaning citizens from all of these countries are able to visit 194 destinations around the world either visa-free or by obtaining a visa-on-arrival.The Henley Passport Index is the only ranking of its kind and is developed based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). The index compares 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.While Japan and Singapore have made it into the number one slot for the past five years running, according to CNN, the European countries that are now also ranked number one on the list is a new development.
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There's a new six-way tie for first place in an annual global travel ranking.France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Spain, have all tied as having the top passport in the world, measured by providing visa-free access to 194 countries with their respective passports, according to the newest Henley Passport Index. The annual report measures the flexibility of visa-free travel and has become a popular list among global travelers. For comparison, in 2023, only Japan was crowned with the top spot when it provided access to 193 countries.
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It just got easier to visit Greece from the United States. Norse Atlantic Airways, a low-cost airline based in Oslo, Norway, announced a new route between New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) and Athens International Airport in Greece on Wednesday. The flight will operate five times per week from May 30, 2024 through Oct. 26, 2024, the airline shared withTravel + Leisure. The new flight has a duration of 9 hours and 35 minutes. Currently, the airline operates service between New York and Athens with a stopover in London’s Gatwick airport for a total duration of 18 hours. “This launch underscores our commitment to meeting the evolving travel needs of our passengers," Norse Atlantic Airways’ CEO and Founder Bjorn Tore Larsen said in a statement shared with T+L. «We believe this route will not only cater to the demand for travel to Greece but will also create opportunities for cultural exchange and business collaborations between these two vibrant destinations,”