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Agent Selling Tips: Family Holidays

03-Jul-2025

Category: News Stories

This month, we're shining a spotlight on family holidays in the Asia Pacific region. We've asked PATA Committee Member & Product Manager at Premier Holidays, John Parker, to give his top tips on selling family holidays in Asia. John's colleague, Jayne, also provides some feedback on the Australasia & Pacific region.

Selling tips

Family Travel has been one of the major growth markets post pandemic and the trend for multi generational travel shows no sign of letting up. The excellent value offered by a holiday in the Far East region means that this region has been particularly popular and in some cases a family holiday to a beach resort in Thailand or Malaysia can price as well as similar packages in Europe.

Many hotels, particularly those that have recently opened or had recent renovations have noticeable expanded their family room offerings with a great selection of family sized apartments, suites and villas. However its also worth enquiring about interconnecting rooms as these can offer the same amount of space at a lower price.

Families traditionally travel during high seasons and whilst school holidays will often dictate dates of travel, its worth considering visiting destinations during lower seasons for better value and greater deals. For example family friendly hotels in Phuket, Krabi and Khao Lak in Thailand offer some superb rate reductions and additional benefits during July and August.

Wherever you are travelling, especially during high season dates, book early to ensure you can source the accommodation your clients want as family friendly room inventories at hotels tend to be some of the first to sell out.

Make sure to enquire about properties offering family friendly deals; benefits such as free meals can represent a significant saving as these types of costs can soon stack up.

Recent booking trends

Families travelling together are always looking for experiences they can share to make memories together. Experience led properties such as Elephant Hills in Khao Lak and Chiang Mai in Thailand are extremely popular during school holidays (and it is always therefore these dates that sell out fast!)

Jayne, Premier's Australasia Product Manager, says "The Pacific region boasts a wide array of family-friendly attractions, ranging from theme parks and outdoor adventures to cultural and educational experiences, as well as unique wildlife encounters. These all continue to make this part of the world so popular for family holidays. Premier Holidays has experienced significant growth in Queensland’s beautiful beach resorts, such as Port Douglas, the Gold Coast, Noosa, and Hamilton Island and this can be strongly attributed to their popularity with the family market. Whether families are looking for surfing, wildlife encounters, rainforests, or golden sandy beaches, Queensland provides the ideal family getaways to complement big city stays.

Hamilton Island in particular continues to see strong sales as the “perfect” family retreat, featuring family-friendly restaurants with Kids Eat Free offers, kids' pools, and numerous free family activities. Additionally, in Autumn 2025, The Sundays, a new boutique escape, will open its doors. This retreat is designed with a seamless blend of spacious, calming interiors and stunning natural views. It offers a variety of terrace and balcony rooms, thoughtfully designed to accommodate families of all sizes and configurations, including Family Connect Rooms, which are larger, interconnected spaces for families needing extra room to play.

Western Australia is also becoming an increasingly popular destination for families traveling outside the peak summer season to align with school holidays. Despite it being winter, the weather remains mild, particularly in the north, and there are fewer crowds and is the prime season for wildlife encounters including whale and whale sharks, dolphins, and manta rays plus quokkas on Rottnest Island.

In New Zealand, Queenstown and Rotorua continue to be popular choices for extended family stays, perfect for completing an ideal road trip with their wealth of must do experiences and attractions. Rotorua features geothermal parks and Māori cultural experiences, and just an hour away is the renowned Hobbiton Movie Set, a playground for both adults and children. Queenstown is an adventure family's dream, offering jet boat rides, luge runs, gondola rides, cruises, and many water sports. Premier Holidays clients appreciate the diverse selection of family friendly hotels we offer in these locations to suit most budgets, with interconnecting rooms and children's activity programs."

Family friendly hotel are amongst those that have seen the highest growth for Premier Holidays in the past 18 months. One example being the Phuket Emerald where the very spacious rooms appeal as much to families as the water slides and splash pools.

Clients are increasingly booking further and further ahead to ensure that they can secure the exact holiday that they want to book. This particularly applies to larger family bookings where there is often less flexibility over dates of travel and accommodation choices.

Forward booking predictions

Families traditionally travel during high seasons and this will only continue to add to the shortage of rooms available over these peak periods. As always, the message is book early to secure what you want.

The luxury market continues to thrive across all destinations and is expected to continue to grow in the months ahead. Family friendly rooms at 5* hotels, resorts and lodges will continue to be in very high demand.

Jayne says "Australia and New Zealand are expected to continue to see strong growth in holiday bookings and these are driven by multi generational parties travelling together. Soft adventure, cultural experiences and wildlife encounters continue to be amongst some of the top considerations for bookings to this region."

Young travellers are increasingly influencing the holiday decisions made by the entire family – often it is this generation that is most savvy when it comes to using modern technology to research holiday ideas. Expect to see more holiday marketing targeting this generation.