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GetYourGuideGetYourGuide — The Rise of Grandma Tourism

Lovie Awards entry · GetYourGuide

The Rise of Grandma Tourism

How booking data and six older local guides helped GetYourGuide turn a social media signal into an international travel story.

Brand
GetYourGuide
Launched
April 2026
Results tracked through
31 August 2026
Lead markets
UK, France and Germany
View the press release(opens in a new tab)View the global report(opens in a new tab)
Rosella and guests holding trays of freshly made pasta in her Rome kitchen
Hands shaping fresh pasta dough during a cooking workshop
A host and two travellers making pasta together

Results at a glance

44

earned-media placements

621.7m

cumulative estimated reach

10

countries in the coverage tracker

€15k

research and content budget

The campaign was still generating new coverage when the tally closed on 31 August.

  • BBC Travel
  • Daily Mail
  • Bild
  • 20 Minutes
  • Die Welt
  • CBC Radio

The brief

Could #grandmacore reveal a real shift in travel? 

GetYourGuide, a global marketplace for travel experiences, set out to strengthen its position as the home of travel know-how. The team spotted promise in #grandmacore, but a viral hashtag alone would not make a credible travel story. The challenge was to prove that interest in slower, hands-on traditions was shaping how people travelled, then make that evidence relevant across three distinct media markets.

The campaign set out to:

  • strengthen GetYourGuide's authority on experience-led travel
  • put older guides and the knowledge they share at the centre of the story
  • earn locally relevant coverage in the UK, France and Germany, then take the idea beyond those markets

The budget

The approved external budget totalled €15,000.

Planned campaign spend by budget line
Budget linePlanned spend
Toluna researchA four-market study with 8,110 respondents€10,000
Content productionPhotography, host outreach, interviews, writing and press-pack material€5,000

The booking signal

The data said it was already happening

At the planning stage, #grandmacore had passed 251 million views on TikTok. But the trend wasn't confined to social media: it was already showing up in GetYourGuide's bookings.

Between 2023 and 2025, bookings for workshops and classes grew by more than 250%. Those mentioning a grandma, nonna or another older guide rose by 50%. Travellers were already paying older locals to share skills and traditions.

251m

#grandmacore views on TikTok

+250%

growth in workshop and class bookings, 2023–2025

+50%

growth in bookings naming a grandma or older guide

Proof beyond the platform

A four-market study

To test whether the appetite extended beyond its platform, GetYourGuide commissioned Toluna to survey 8,110 people in France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States. Fieldwork ran from 16 to 18 February 2026, using nationally representative samples in each market.

  • 69%

    would rather learn from an older local guide than a younger one

  • 76%

    would book a grandma-inspired travel experience

  • 96%

    already take part in analogue hobbies such as cooking family recipes, gardening or doing crosswords

Together, the two data sets connected behaviour with broader demand: the platform data showed what people were booking, while the survey revealed how widespread the interest was.

The idea

Give the behaviour a name

GetYourGuide gave this travel behaviour a name: Grandma Tourism. Its report, The Rise of Grandma Tourism, combined the data with first-person accounts from six women offering bookable experiences on the platform. For journalists, it paired a quantifiable travel trend with distinctive people they could interview.

Read or download the global report(opens in a new tab)
Cover of The Rise of Grandma Tourism report
Report cover
Inside spread of the report showing the survey data
Inside spread

The people

Meet the women behind the trend

At the heart of the campaign were six remarquable women, each bringing a distinctive personality, deep local knowledge and expertise shaped over lifetime.

The execution

One report, three localised launches

GetYourGuide launched a global report, supported by three localised press releases and tailored media outreach in UK, France and Germany. Journalists received market-specific data, guide profiles, original photography and direct links to bookable experiences. The research and interviews also ran across The Explorer (GetYourGuide's online content travel hub and digital magazine), CRM, social media and LinkedIn.

The global report cover
Global reportCover and inside spreads
GetYourGuide press release for The Rise of Grandma Tourism
Press releaseThe Rise of “Grandma Tourism”
Travellers learning pastry techniques during a Paris workshop
PhotographyPortraits and workshops
The Explorer article: Meet the grandmas behind 2026's unexpected travel trend
Owned channelsExplorer, CRM and social
  • Travellers learning pastry techniques during a Paris workshop
  • A grandmother rolling fresh pasta during a Rome cooking class
  • Kayoko demonstrating musubi-making during her Tokyo workshop
  • A nonna cooking at the Malaga farm-to-table experience
  • Nazike playing a card game with a traveller over Turkish tea
  • Kayoko guiding a traveller through musubi-making in Tokyo
  • A French grandmother helping a young traveller shape pastry in Paris
  • A farm-to-table spread at the Malaga experience

Swipe to see more photography

Localisation

One idea, three local angles

Each release led with the finding most likely to resonate locally.

Local emphasis and resulting coverage in each lead market
MarketLocal emphasisHow the story landed
FranceEmotion, family recipes and cultural storytelling20 Minutes asked whether a grandmother should be your next guide; RTL brought the idea to broadcast
GermanyPractical skills, learning by doing and older local expertiseDie Welt profiled Erfurt's oldest city guide; later coverage included Bild and Travelbook
UKCalm, comfort and a break from digital overloadEarly coverage from MSN and indy100 was followed by BBC Travel and an on-location Daily Mail feature

Earned media

How the story travelled

Coverage began in April across 20 Minutes, RTL, MSN, Parade and Frankfurt Live. The story gained ground through May and June: Newstalk ZB delivered the first organic radio feature, while L'Internaute and Die Welt brought it to French and German audiences. In July, BBC Travel drew on GetYourGuide's research for a feature on 'nonnamaxxing', while CBC Radio interviewed the team. Bild, der Standard, Falstaff and Heute developed the theme for German-speaking audiences. The Daily Mail and 20 Minutes went further, sending journalists to Rome for Rosella's pasta class.

The three-market launch sparked its own editorial momentum. Outlets found new headlines, commissioned local versions and experienced the tours first-hand. Four months after the first release, coverage was still growing.

The results

Still growing when the tally closed

From 22 April to 31 August 2026, the campaign secured 44 (tracked) earned-media placements and a combined estimated reach of 621.7 million. Coverage ran across ten countries and four media formats: online, print, television and radio. Outlets included BBC Travel, Daily Mail, Bild, 20 Minutes, Die Welt, Parade, CBC Radio and MSN.

The story continued to travel after the reporting window closed. Grandma Tourism reached Asian media including a South Korean feature carried by Daum or an Inquirer opinion piece in the Philippines. These later articles are not included in the figures above.

  • 16,229

    visits to the campaign article on The Explorer in its launch week, around 10,000 more than the next-best-performing article

  • +23% / +20% / +6.6%

    On social media, average reach was 23% above baseline, engagements per post were 20% higher and saves rose by 6.6%

Open The Explorer article(opens in a new tab)Open the Instagram post(opens in a new tab)
The Explorer article: Why grandma guides could be an antidote to modern lonelinessInstagram post: why pasta making with grandma is a cure for the loneliness epidemicInstagram post: the secret to perfect pasta, according to an Italian grandma

Measurement note: 621.7 million is the sum of estimated reach recorded in the coverage tracker, based on figures from Meltwater, Landau Media and Cision.

Why it worked

A story journalists could experience for themselves

GetYourGuide saw the trend emerging in its own booking data and connected journalists with the women hosting these experiences.

Local teams led with the finding that mattered most in each market. With robust evidence, memorable voices and bookable experiences to explore first-hand, editors could turn the idea into features, interviews and original reporting. That combination kept it in the news throughout the summer.