Mom encourages Black families to travel while showing son the world | USA TODAY

Kay Apkan always knew she wanted to show her son the world. Together, they're showing other Black families how to get out there too.

RELATED: Nat Geo's best global travel destinations for 2023, US cities included

Apkan, who is known as The Mom Trotter to hundreds of thousands of followers across social media, founded the Facebook group and nonprofit Black Kids Do Travel to "encourage families to see the world and Black families to get out there."

When she and her husband first sold their home and set off for adventure with their son in an RV in 2020, she found tons of Facebook groups for people sharing their nomadic lifestyle and love of travel.

"However, every time I posted about traveling as a family of color … every time I was curious about 'Can I go here?' or 'How are things?,' people would always downplay my feelings," she said. 

At first, Apkan said she felt gaslit. "I ended up realizing that that's because they've never experienced that. They don't know what it is to travel as a Black woman," she said.

More than 70% of Black travelers from the U.S. and Canada identified safety as extremely or very influential in choosing destinations, according to MMGY Global's 2021 research report The Black Traveler: Insights, Opportunities & Priorities, which surveyed more than 2,100 Black leisure travelers across the two countries.

» Subscribe to USA TODAY:
» Watch more on this and other topics from USA TODAY:
» USA TODAY delivers current local and national news, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, and more through award-winning journalism, photos, videos and VR.

#travel #blackfamily

One comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.