Obesity, attention deficit disorder and impaired social skills are just a few of the ways children are being impacted by what author Richard Louv has dubbed "Nature Deficit Disorder."

According to a recent family travel poll conducted by Travelocity, families with children today are visiting national parks and other nature sites much less frequently than previous generations. Twenty-five percent of the Silent Generation (born between 1925-1945) report that all of their childhood family vacations included some interaction with nature compared to only 15 percent of families traveling with kids today.

Today's families take less time to participate in outdoor activities. Instead of hiking, biking and camping, more than twice as many families today focus on activities like shopping than did earlier generations (now 20 percent of family vacations – up from 8 percent during the Silent Generation's childhood years).

To address what's being called a nature deficit epidemic, Travelocity launched a "micro-site" offering tips and advice to parents on getting their kids back into nature through travel. The micro-site can be accessed at www.travelocity.com/nature and provides itineraries for nature-oriented family vacations, tips on getting kids excited about nature, and vacation activities for parents and children. The site even features a special tips section from best-selling author Richard Louv ( Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder ).

"The bad news is our interaction with nature is on the decline and that has serious implications for children, but the good news is there are easy things parents can do to get nature back into their vacations and ultimately their families' lives," according to Amy Ziff, Travelocity editor-at-large. "That's why Travelocity launched the Children In Nature micro-site."

Travelocity's poll also found that instead of camping trips, the largest group of respondents (families with kids), frequent major cities (19 percent) and amusement parks (13 percent) as destinations. In contrast, as children the Silent Generation visited major cities 8 percent of the time and amusement parks only 6 percent.

The means by which families travel also has changed dramatically across generations. Not surprisingly, car travel has diminished while air travel has increased with families going much greater distances. This means families today have fewer opportunities to stop along the way to admire scenic overlooks, explore local hiking trails, or just watch the scenery outside as it changes. Data findings include:

AIR

• As children, the Silent Generation traveled by plane 4 percent of the time
• Generation X took planes 14 percent of the time.
• Today's families travel by air for 63 percent of their vacations.

CAR

• Today's families traveling with children take road trips 34 percent of the time
• Generation X children traveled by car for 79 percent of their vacations
• Silent Generation children traveled by car 90 percent of the time.

Additional poll findings include:

• Visits to the countryside are down across generations. Families traveling with kids today visit the countryside only 4 percent of the time (down 6 percentage points (or 60%) when compared to the silent generation).
• Beaches also gained share - garnering 29 percent of destinations visited by families traveling with children today up most strikingly by 9 percentage points from when Generation X were children when it was just 20 percent of all vacations.

The Travelocity poll conducted from Feb 8 - 25, 2008 consists of responses from approximately 853 Travelocity members. The survey was conducted to obtain information from travelers who have booked at least one travel component in the last 12 months. For complete survey details, visit www.travelocity.com/familypoll or contact Vollmer Public Relations at 972-488-4790 / ashley@vollmerpr.com