At the 2025 Select Traveler Conference this year in Owensboro, Kentucky, we concluded our breakout survey with two questions that cut to the heart of why group travel has thrived for more than a century in this country. Consider that one of our travel company clients, Collette, is now in its 108th year as a successful tour operator. Consider as well that many families in America have likely enjoyed professionally operated group trips for more than four generations.
The first question’s response revealed that 95% of our travel buyers believe there will always be natural group leaders in any generation of our population. From boomers to Gen Z, and far into the future, these travel planners said that group leaders will always emerge as the gatherers of friends and family members for a group travel experience.
A follow-up question revealed that 98% of these attendees conversely believe that there will always be followers who are happy to allow a leader to create a travel opportunity for them, whether it’s just down the road or a continent away.
For all our evolutionary advances in technology, transportation and personalized entertainment, these travel planners believe that the social dynamic driving affinity travel will never disappear. Leaders who love planning trips will emerge while followers will jump at the chance to come along, and small bands of travelers will explore their world one adventure at a time.
