A recent family travel poll conducted by Travelocity revealed that families with children are visiting national parks and other nature sites much less frequently than previous generations. Twenty-five percent of the Silent Generation (born between 1925-1945) report that all of their childhood family vacations included some interaction with nature compared to only 15 percent of families traveling with kids today.

Today’s families take less time to participate in outdoor activities. Instead of hiking, biking and camping, more than twice as many families today focus on activities like shopping than did earlier generations (now 20 percent of family vacations – up from 8 percent during the Silent Generation’s childhood years).

To address what’s being called a nature deficit epidemic, Travelocity launched a “micro-site” offering tips and advice to parents on getting their kids back into nature through travel. The micro-site can be accessed at www.travelocity.com/nature and provides itineraries for nature-oriented family vacations, tips on getting kids excited about nature, and vacation activities for parents and children. The site even features a special tips section from best-selling author Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder).

Travelocity’s poll also found that instead of camping trips, the largest group of respondents (families with kids), frequent major cities (19 percent) and amusement parks (13 percent) as destinations. In contrast, as children the Silent Generation visited major cities 8 percent of the time and amusement parks only 6 percent.

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