by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 6:50 PM ET, Wed October 15, 2025
Calling all parents. Raise your hand if, like me, your child has been the driving force in planning a family vacation in recent years.
My family’s summer 2025 trip to Japan, for instance, was largely born out of my 12 year old son’s travel dreams and interests.
And apparently I’m not alone on this front. Gen Alpha is having a significant and growing impact on the travel decisions of their families, according to recent travel industry studies.
It’s a development not lost Visit Anaheim, the destination management organization for the Southern California city that’s most famously home to Disneyland.
This summer, Visit Anaheim broke new ground in family travel planning and marketing with the launch of a Imaginagency, a kid-run travel ‘agency.’
Developed in partnership with actress, entrepreneur, and mom Tia Mowry, Imaginagency is a website platform featuring one- to four-night bookable Anaheim-focused travel itineraries that were developed by six kids.
The itineraries include such options as “Cairo’s To-The-Point Anaheim Tour,” which is a three night culinary-focused Disneyland experience developed by six-year-old Cairo Mowry, and “Brayden’s Entertainment Packed Dream Vacation” – a two night trip developed by nine-year-old Brayden El Moussa featuring everything from thrilling theme parks and racing simulators to poolside vibes and epic views.
The goal of the new initiative is to reframe how families plan trips, putting children’s preferences front and center, according to Visit Anaheim.
And underscoring the findings of other studies, Visit Anaheim’s own proprietary research found that 86 percent of kids want more input in planning vacations. Moreover, 82% of parents say the best trips are those their children help shape.
“For me, growing up, our parents kind of told us ‘This is where we’re going’ and ‘This is what we’re doing’, but slowly that conversation has started to shift,” Visit Anaheim’s CMO Scott Oklin, told TravelPulse. “Parents are starting more and more to draw inspiration from their kids.”
Here’s a closer look at how Visit Anaheim is tapping into that shift in family dynamics and travel planning.
Itineraries Crafted by Six “Imaginagents”
First things first, if some of the names of Visit Anaheim’s six young “Imaginagents,” travel agents sound familiar to you, it’s likely because you’ve heard of their parents.
Visit Anaheim’s team of youth travel agents includes:
Brayden El Moussa (son of American TV personality and real estate investor Tarek El Moussa from the HGTV show Flip or Flop)Tynka Gudas (daughter of NHL player Radko Gudas)Cree and Cairo Mowry-Hardrict, children of Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict
Additional child agents include Olivia Bledsoe and Nigel Zhang, two local nine-year-old ‘Anaheim experts.’
Each
of these children have ties to Orange County and Anaheim and were
tapped by Visit Anaheim to develop a themed, bookable itinerary
featuring their favorite local activities. (Think: everything from
amusement parks to foodie finds and behind-the-scenes sports
experiences.)
“We really gave them a blank canvas, allowing them to follow their own inspiration, creativity, and outside the box thinking,” Oklin explained. “Because sometimes as adults we have a blindspot because of our experiences through the years.”
Once each child developed their own travel plan for Anaheim, DMO officials worked with them to channel the logistics into a feasible one-,two-, three- or four-day itinerary.
The result? In addition to Cairo and Brayden’s already-mentioned itineraries, Imaginagency features a high-energy four-night adventure across the city’s top amusement parks designed by nine-year-old Nigel, and a three-night trip focused on hiking, shopping, and visiting Knott’s Berry Farm from nine-year-old Olivia.
Meanwhile, 13-year-old Cree came up with a three-night itinerary focused on diving into Disneyland Resort’s 70th anniversary celebrations, featuring fun for all ages including beloved Disney characters, favorite rides, and spectacular entertainment.
Not to be overlooked, nine-year-old Tynka Gudas developed an NHL Ducks-inspired travel itinerary. (Which has since sold out).
How To Use Imaginagency’s Kid-Crafted Trips To Plan Your Own Itinerary
With the Imaginagency platform now up and running, families interested in visiting Anaheim and exploring all that the city has to offer from a family-friendly, kid-forward perspective have various options and tools available.
For instance, Imaginagency can be used by kids to build a custom itinerary with the platform’s Itinerary Builder tool.
In additions, family visitors can peruse each of the Imaginagents’ existing itineraries online. The six bookable itinerary options feature everything from theme park thrills to foodie finds, showcasing the fact that Anaheim is home to far more than just Disneyland.
Anaheim is also a city where travelers can explore such lesser known haunts and highlights as Little Saigon and Little Arabia (both foodie favorites ) along with Knotts Berry Farm, Angel Stadium, the Anaheim GardenWalk and many other sights.
“What we really wanted to lead into, how do we showcase Little Saigon, Little Arabia, and places people might know about in our destination and also get the kids excited about these places because they’re the ones that can really reframe the conversation and get people excited and inspired about things they might not otherwise have heard about.”
“These itineraries give people the full breadth of ideas and options as to what they can expect to experience when visiting Anaheim,” said Oklin.
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