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TravelMole Interview: Brenda Elwell, author and Certified Travel Consultant
One of the nation’s leading experts on single parent travel has some suggestions for helping make it easier and presumably more profitable for agents. Says Brenda Elwell: “One issue that comes up all the time is that I have hotels saying, ’oh, we have all sorts of activities for entire families. We have all day daycare,’ or something like that. But often what they’re talking about are not really single parent programs for the entire family.” “What they often need are programs where parents can bond with a child, real activities they can do together,” she added. Another need agents and others should consider for single family travelers is the security issue. There’s only one parent around to keep an eye on children, for example. Ms Elwell urges hotels and resorts to consider adding special programs such as 24-hour extended stays for adults after the children are gone. “That means that when the kids fly home, the parent can also get a vacation,” she said. She also campaigns against what she calls the “dreaded single supplement” of extra chargea for people in tour groups or cruise ships in single rooms. Some resorts are eliminating that and instead designing programs for single parents and their children, she said. Ms Elwell points out that single parents make up more than a quarter of all US households. They’re traveling in greater numbers than ever, she said. The Single Parent Travel Network (www. SingleParentTravel.net) caters to that market. Ms Elwell, a veteran single parent traveler, has written a book on the subject called “The Single Parent Travel Handbook.” In the book, she recommends agents who specialize in single family travel. She has 75 listed. Agents also can buy the book at discounted prices. “By working together, we can generate business for both of us,” she said. Report by David Wilkening
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