Jason Susinski

TORONTO — Every traveller has family history – and that means that every traveller is also a potential client for ancestry travel.

Many travel companies offer ancestry travel tour services, customized to a client’s own personal family tree, background and interests. Kensington Tours is one of those companies, helping travellers (and their travel advisors) take the guesswork out of ancestry travel and make genealogy journey dreams come true.

Travelweek connected with Jason Susinski, Director of Product, Kensington Tours, to find out more about the company’s Personal Heritage Journeys division.

Travelweek: When did ancestry tours really start taking off for Kensington Tours? 

Susinski: “Kensington Tours launched Personal Heritage Journeys in partnership with Ancestry.com in March 2021, as a way to provide the most personal, in-depth and privately guided exploration of a client’s family roots.

“These trips really started to gain in popularity in 2022 once the pandemic ended and travel restrictions were lifted globally. This is also when we saw a dramatic increase overall in multi-gen travel as families really looked to reconnect through travel after many months, and in some cases years, without travelling.”

Travelweek: Many travellers no doubt would love to research their family history and take a trip like this but think it will be complicated. Is it? 

Susinski: “Not when you book with us! Every unique travel adventure is crafted through a partnership between a Kensington Tours’ Destination Expert and a professional genealogist from AncestryProGenealogists. By integrating the Ancestry genealogist’s comprehensive analysis of each distinct family history, the Destination Expert designs a custom itinerary centered around the most significant sites and events from that history.

“The trip is designed with the traveller’s objectives as the foremost consideration and is led exclusively by local private guides who are specialists in the area’s history and culture. Moreover, for an enhanced and more insightful journey, an onsite genealogist can also join the trip, providing deeper understanding and a more meaningful and engaging experience.”

Travelweek: Is there a typical duration for ancestry tours, and are tours privately guided or are clients on their own? 

Susinski: “Most of our trips range from 10 to 14 days, but as they are all privately guided and customized to the client’s interests and timeframe, they can be any duration according to how long they are looking to spend.”

Travelweek: Ancestry tours are of course unique to each traveller based on their genealogy, but can you give us the highlights from a sample itinerary from an ancestry travel client? 

Susinski: “We developed all the sample itineraries on our website to have a general and cultural appeal, combined with more historical elements, tied together with a story of emigration.

“For example, our Germany Family Heritage Journey starts in the often-overlooked city of Frankfurt to peel back the layers of history in the Old Town before heading out to the surrounding area to visit the 13th century Heidelburg Castle and, going back even further, the UNESCO-listed 11th century cathedral in Speyer. We start to make our way north by way of Cologne, including a visit to an ethnographic museum for a fun look into what life was like over 400 years ago, with original buildings from the region. Cologne itself is a city dating back 2,000 years, and a tour here will seamlessly blend in several historical eras right up to WWII. From here we head to Bremerhaven on the North Sea coast or a visit to the German Emigration Center – Europe’s largest museum focused on emigration. If anyone has ancestors who came from Germany between 1830 and 1974, there’s a good chance they departed from Bremerhaven, and the museum is located on the exact dock ships would have departed from. Finally, we end in the architecturally stunning, canal city of Hamburg, home to the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum, another gateway for millions of emigrants from all over Europe.

“As with all our trips, any or all of these locales and experiences can be customized, as can the hotels, length of stay in each locale, and types of touring. We can add an on-site genealogist to any of the days, and include any sites or locales that are relevant to anyone’s family story.”

Travelweek: What’s one of the more interesting ancestry travel stories that you’ve come across? 

Susinski: “There are so many of them, but we did one for a family from Poland. The grandmother had been in one of the camps during the Holocaust and had not been back since. As part of this trip, we arranged for her to return with her family, making for a very poignant experience.

“But we have also done some incredible trips to other countries including Ireland and Italy, which are two of the most popular destinations for Personal Heritage Journeys. To that point, Italy has proclaimed 2024 as the Year of the Italian Roots in the World to encourage Italian descendants to come visit and fully appreciate the beauty, culture and historical traditions of the small villages that their ancestors left.”

Travelweek: How big is this niche for Kensington Tours these days? 

Susinski: “These trips remain very popular, which is why we’ve continued to expand the locations where we do these trips in collaboration with Ancestry.com.

“We have several thought-starter itineraries to places from Ireland, Germany and Italy to Japan, Ghana and New York but can curate a trip to just about anywhere. Of course, a big part of it comes down to the record-keeping in each country as some countries are better than others.”

Travelweek: What’s your best advice for agents interested in this niche? It seems like it could appeal to so many clients, since everyone has a family history! 

Susinski: “With the demand for multi-gen/family travel continuing to remain high, this is such a meaningful and memorable experience for families to share together.

“We work with advisors quite frequently on these types of trips as we have the connections and infrastructure through our partnership with Ancestry to do the necessary research while also creating a fully customized itinerary that incorporates all of the other elements for a memorable trip.”

Kensington Tours’ Personal Heritage Journeys include customized Italy tours (credit Getty Images)

For more information see https://kensingtontours.com/travel-ideas/personal-heritage-journeys. To read part 1 of Travelweek’s Ancestry Travel series, click here.