As youth and amateur sports travel continues to emerge as a significant driver of tourism and destination spending, the need for better coordination tools has become increasingly clear. TDM interviews Dr. Jen Fry, Founder and CEO of Coordle, who brings more than 15 years of experience in youth and collegiate volleyball coaching to the space, having witnessed first-hand the logistical challenges families, teams, and organisers face when travelling for tournaments and events. In this interview, Dr. Fry discusses the inspiration behind Coordle, the growing economic impact of youth sports travel, and why improved coordination—not just more communication—is key to supporting this rapidly expanding segment of the global travel ecosystem
Travel Daily Media (TDM): After over 15 years in volleyball youth and college coaching, what led you to launch Coordle, and what gap did you identify in the youth sports travel market?
Dr. Jen Fry (JF): I coached college and youth volleyball for over 15 years, and the same problems kept showing up no matter how much technology improved. I remember my PhD graduation being a turning point. I had built this detailed Google Sheet to organise everything for the group. It looked great. No one used it. That’s when it really clicked that the tools weren’t the issue. They just weren’t built for how groups actually operate. What I realised is that people still don’t travel well in groups, and there wasn’t a real way to manage all the moving pieces. When I looked into it more, everyone was using the same mix of tools text messages, WhatsApp, PDFs, emails, calendar invites trying to piece things together. None of those are designed to handle the volume of information or the real-time changes that come with group travel.
I focused on youth sports because the travel is constant and expensive. Families are spending anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000 a year, and the market itself is projected to reach $110 billion by 2033. This isn’t occasional travel. This is frequent, long-distance movement with a lot at stake. And yet, it’s still being managed in the most fragmented way possible. Because of that, what I saw wasn’t just inefficiency. It was frustration. Parents and coaches missing information, digging through message threads, relying on other people to find what they need. That’s where conflict starts. Not because people are difficult, but because the system isn’t working. Parents are using many of these youth sports trips as family vacations as well which means that there is even more logistical information that need to be managed. That’s the gap. Not more communication. Better coordination. Coordle was built to bring everything into one place so groups can actually move the way they’re supposed to.
TDM: From a travel trade perspective, how is youth sports travel evolving as a high-value segment within the wider tourism and events ecosystem?
JF: Youth sports travel has shifted from being treated as a side effect of competition to a core driver of tourism. As I mentioned above, it is going to be a $110 Billion industry because people will always spend money on their kids. For a long time, it sat in this in-between space where it was big, but not taken seriously as an economic engine. That’s changed. Families are no longer traveling locally for a game or two. They’re traveling regionally nationally, and internationally staying multiple nights, eating out, moving between venues, and building full trips around these events. From a travel trade perspective, this is a consistent, repeatable audience that doesn’t just show up once. They come back season after season. That kind of reliability is rare in tourism, and it’s one of the reasons youth sports is becoming such a high-value segment. A family could go back to a location numerous years in the row for the same child, but also their other children. I know people who have gone to AAU Volleyball Championships for a decade in a row because of their kids. That repeatable business you rarely find in other industries.
What makes it different from traditional leisure travel is that it’s not optional. Families aren’t deciding if they feel like traveling. The schedule is already set. The tournament is already booked. The only decision is how they’re going to do it and where they’re going to spend their time and money once they arrive. That creates a built-in demand that most tourism segments don’t have. Cities and destinations aren’t trying to attract these travellers from scratch. They’re already coming. The opportunity now is how to better serve them, guide their decisions, and capture more of that economic activity in a way that feels seamless instead of forced.
At the same time, the expectations of these travellers are increasing, but the systems supporting them haven’t caught up. You have thousands of people moving through a city for a single event, but their experience is still fragmented. Information is scattered, recommendations are passive, and engagement with local businesses is mostly left to chance. From a travel trade standpoint, that’s a missed opportunity. This group is highly concentrated, highly active, and spending money across multiple touchpoints, but there’s very little infrastructure connecting them to the destination in a meaningful, timely way.
That’s where the evolution is happening. Youth sports travel is starting to be viewed less as a logistical challenge and more as a coordinated movement of people that need to be understood, supported, and engaged. The value isn’t just in hotel nights or venue bookings. It’s in how these groups move, what they need, and how destinations can show up in those moments. The next phase of growth in this space will come from organisations and cities that recognise that shift and build around it, not just hosting events, but actively shaping the experience around them.
TDM: Coordle brings together itineraries, communication, and logistics in one platform. How does that help improve efficiency and coordination for teams, organisers destination partners?
JF: What Coordle does is take all the scattered pieces of group travel and put them into one place that actually makes sense for how teams move, it creates an ease of mind for not only the parent managing all the details, but also for the participants who end up looking in several places for one thing such as the dinner location. Instead of bouncing between texts, emails, PDFs, and different apps, everyone is working from the same source of truth. Schedules, locations, updates, and logistics live together, and when something changes, it updates in real time. That alone cuts down on confusion, missed information, and the constant back-and-forth that usually happens when people are trying to piece things together on their own.
For teams and coaches, that means less time managing logistics and more time focused on the actual experience. Coaches can build out their tournament schedule months in advance and on their time frame add the needed information instead of sending a late-night text at the last minute. They also are not answering the same question ten times or chasing down information across different platforms. Parents and athletes know where they need to be, when they need to be there, and what’s happening next without having to dig for it. It removes a lot of the friction that shows up in group travel and reduces the tension that comes from people feeling out of the loop. For event organisers they can add all the information that sits on the website that people never look for but need such as handbook, event maps, important contact numbers, rules and etc right in the same place as their logistical information. If need be, they can also place announcements for the whole group to see. Many times if there isn’t an app that everyone is using the event can’t get a hold of all group members which can be dangerous in times of chaos.
For destination partners it creates something they typically don’t have, which is direct access and visibility into the participant experience and access to first party data. Instead of hoping people find information or engage with local businesses, Coordle puts that information in front of them at the right time with the ability to drive decisions. You do not have to wait until they are local to see what is available, they can decide earlier than they usually do. This also allows destinations to be more intentional about how they connect with visitors, while also getting insights and data into what people are actually doing, where they’re going, and what they care about. At the end of the day, it’s about coordination. Not more communication, but better coordination. When everyone is working from the same system, things move faster, decisions are clearer, and the overall experience improves for everyone involved.
TDM: Why should tourism boards, CVBs, and destination marketers take youth and amateur sports travel more seriously as a driver of visitor spend and local economic impact?
JF: I think tourism boards, CVBs, and destination marketers should be taking youth and amateur sports seriously because this isn’t casual travel. These families are not showing up late, going to one event, and leaving. They are there for multiple days, on a schedule, moving between venues, and spending consistently the entire time. In 2023, youth sports in the US topped $43 billion and is projected to reach $110 billion by 2033. That kind of growth is not coming from occasional trips. It’s coming from families who are traveling over and over again and prioritising those experiences.
And the spending behavior is different. People will cut back in a lot of areas, but they don’t cut back on their kids. When you’re traveling with young athletes, it’s not one meal and a drink. It’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks in between, plus activities when there’s downtime. A three-day tournament means multiple meals a day, multiple activites, and consistent spending across the entire stay. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of families, and the economic impact adds up quickly. This is a volume and frequency play that most other travel segments can’t match. What’s often missed is that these families don’t always have the time or access to fully experience the destination. They’re busy, they’re moving, and most of their decisions are made quickly and in the moment. That’s where the opportunity is. If destinations can meet them where they are, surface relevant options, and make it easy to engage, they can capture more of that spend instead of leaving it to chance or convenience.
And when it’s done well, it doesn’t just impact that one event. It creates repeat visitors. Families will come back on their own, or they’ll choose future tournaments based on location. Youth sports travel isn’t just about filling hotel rooms for a weekend. It’s about creating a pipeline of returning visitors who already know your city and are willing to come back.
TDM: What are the key trends currently shaping sports travel globally, and how do those compare with what you are seeing in the US market?
JF: People love sports, they love to travel, and they love to do it together. One of the biggest global trends right now is that people aren’t just traveling for a game and leaving. They’re turning sporting events into full trips which average about $1500. They’ll stay extra days, explore the city, and treat it like a vacation attached to the event. That’s why you’re seeing people spend real money on these trips and travel internationally for them. You also see leagues leaning into this. The NFL, NBA, and even college programs are consistently playing games overseas because they know fans will travel and build an experience around it. The NFL plays in London and will have a game in Australia and Mexico City. The NBA which will have games in Berlin, London, Manchester and Paris College programs consistently playing every 4 years abroad.
At the same time, cities globally are starting to understand the value of that behavior. They’re investing in facilities, infrastructure, and technology because this isn’t one-time traffic. It’s repeatable. Youth sports in particular is growing fast worldwide, and destinations are getting more intentional about how they package experiences, whether that’s hospitality, local partnerships, or curated things to do. Globally, sports travel is starting to be treated like a system, not just an event you host and hope people figure out on their own.
In the US, those same trends exist, but they show up differently. The youth and amateur market here is built on volume and frequency. Families are traveling constantly, sometimes multiple times a month, and the economic impact is already massive. The difference is that while the demand is there, the experience is still fragmented. People are still piecing together logistics across multiple tools, and the coordination of how groups actually move hasn’t caught up to how often they’re traveling.
That’s really the gap. Globally, you’re starting to see sports travel become more connected and experience-driven. In the US, it’s still largely event-driven and fragmented. The opportunity isn’t getting people to travel. They’re already doing that. The opportunity is creating better systems around them so the experience matches the scale of what’s already happening.
TDM: Is Coordle planning any solutions, partnerships, or offerings tied to World Cup 2026 that could support destinations, organisers, or travelling groups?
JF: Yes, and honestly, the World Cup is exactly the type of event Coordle was built for.
What we’re doing around the 2026 World Cup is centered on helping people actually navigate it. This isn’t one city, one hotel, one venue. It’s 16 cities across three countries, and most fans, teams, and groups are moving between multiple locations. With Coordle, anyone can build a full World Cup trip for free. They can build by host city, follow a specific country across multiple cities, or plan around a single match. We’ve also built in stopover cities because we know people aren’t just flying in and out for a game. They’re turning this into a broader travel experience, and the platform should reflect that.
For travel groups, this isn’t just about organising a trip. It’s about having everything in one place while you’re moving. Schedules, logistics, updates, and what to do in each location all live together, so you’re not digging through messages or guessing what’s next. It removes the chaos that usually comes with trying to manage something at this scale.
Where this gets even more valuable is how we connect those groups to the destination. We’re not just organising travel, we’re putting relevant options directly in front of them while they’re planning and while they’re there. That means local businesses, restaurants, experiences, and partners can show up inside the trip itself, not on the side where people may or may not find them. It’s targeted, it’s timely, and it’s tied to where people actually are and what they’re doing.
For destinations and organisers, that creates a much more direct and measurable way to engage visitors. Instead of hoping people explore, you can guide them. Instead of broad marketing, you can be specific about when and where you show up. And because it’s all happening inside the trip, you can actually see what people are engaging with and how they’re moving. At the end of the day, the World Cup is going to bring massive movement across multiple cities, and most of it is still going to be managed in a fragmented way. What we’re offering is a way to organise that movement for travelers while also creating a direct connection between those groups and the destinations hosting them.
TDM: Against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, rising costs, and travel disruptions, do you see group travel becoming a more resilient model, and how do you expect sports travel to evolve over the next few years?
JF: I don’t know if I’d say group travel becomes more resilient. I think this is just becoming the reality of travel. The uncertainty, the rising costs, the disruptions, that’s not going away. So instead of resilience, what we’re going to see is people becoming more intentional. They’re going to be more thoughtful about where they go, who they travel with, and how they plan.
Where it gets more complex is when you’re dealing with groups coming from different countries. Passports, visas, entry requirements, those aren’t small details, they shape how and where people can travel. A group all coming from the US is going to have a very different experience than a group made up of multiple nationalities. That adds another layer that organisers and destinations are going to have to think through more carefully than they have in the past.
What I do think is clear is that sports travel is only going to continue to grow. The numbers already show that this is where a lot of the money is going, and it’s tied to how people travel for sports. These aren’t quick trips. People are staying longer, spending more, and building experiences around the event. What used to be a one-day event is now being stretched into four or five days, and that changes everything from how destinations plan to how businesses show up. So, while travel overall may feel more complicated, sports travel is actually becoming more structured and more valuable. The demand is there, the spending is there, and the evolution is happening in how experiences are built around the event, not just the event itself. Families are already stacking travel, blending sports with vacation, and even layering it around work. The trip itself is becoming the experience, not just the tournament.
Where this continues to evolve is in how events and cities think about the group, not just the individual traveler. These groups are often multi-generational and made up of people with very different budgets. Not everyone is going to do the same things, spend the same way, or prioritise the same experiences. That means destinations can’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. There has to be a range of options that meet people where they are, while still keeping them connected to the larger experience.
