About
They are Daan and Esmée van der Valk, the Dutch couple behind the wildly successful Instagram handle @globetrotters.nl. With a follower count that surged past one million in 2023, they have cemented themselves as the Netherlands’ preeminent family travel influencers, curating a world of pristine infinity pools, five-star resorts, and idyllic family moments for an enraptured digital audience. Their brand is a strong example in aspirational content. Yet, beneath the sun-drenched visuals lies a simmering and complex debate, one that questions the very ethics of their enterprise and positions them at the center of a growing controversy over the role of children in the influencer economy.
Globetrotters: How It Started
The Globetrotters story did not begin with a sprawling family in tow. Its origins trace back to 2018, when Esmée, then a professional in marketing and social media, launched a personal travel blog. For seven years prior, her partner, Daan, had built a career as a commercial pilot. The trajectory of their lives—and their brand—was permanently altered by the global pandemic in 2020. With the aviation industry in turmoil and Daan’s job security threatened, the couple made a pivotal decision: to merge their professional lives and pursue content creation full-time.
This new chapter coincided with a significant personal milestone. Their first daughter was born in December 2020, and by 2021, the family had committed entirely to the Globetrotters brand. The growth was explosive. As they documented their travels with a newborn, their audience expanded, drawn to the unique niche they were carving out. A second daughter followed in August 2022, further cementing their identity. In 2023, they achieved a landmark, becoming the first Dutch family travel influencers to cross the one million follower threshold on Instagram. Their family, and their public story, continued to grow with the birth of a son in May 2024.
Globetrotters Content: Evolution and Style
The brand’s content has undergone a distinct evolution, mirroring the changes in their family life. What began as a more general travel log has sharpened its focus to exclusively occupy the luxury family travel sector. The van der Valks’ children are no longer just participants in the travel; they are central figures in the brand’s narrative and aesthetic.
Their visual signature is one of high-production, cinematic quality. Polished photographs and videos, often featuring sweeping drone shots of exotic locales, populate their feed. The content carefully showcases luxury hotels, exclusive resorts, and curated family-friendly experiences. Every post is designed to sell a specific vision of travel—one that is seamless, beautiful, and accessible, provided one has the means. This stylistic shift has been critical to their commercial success, differentiating them in a crowded market.
How Globetrotters Makes Money
The Globetrotters empire is built primarily on Instagram, but their monetization strategy is diversified across multiple channels. Their main revenue stream flows from brand partnerships with luxury hotel chains, international tourism boards, and high-end family product brands. These are not simple sponsored posts but often elaborate content campaigns.
Beyond collaborations, they offer direct content creation services, producing bespoke photo and video packages for clients in the hospitality industry. This B2B offering leverages the same high-end production skills visible on their own feed. Like many creators, they also generate income through digital products, specifically by selling their proprietary Lightroom presets to followers wishing to emulate their distinct visual style. Affiliate marketing represents another, more passive, income stream.
While Instagram is their stronghold, they have attempted to expand to other platforms. A YouTube channel was launched to explore long-form video, but an analysis of its performance reveals a significant challenge. The channel’s subscriber-to-view ratio is notably low, suggesting the audience that engages with their polished, bite-sized Instagram content is less inclined to follow them to a platform demanding a different form of engagement.
Globetrotters's Network
The van der Valks have cultivated a powerful network within the global luxury travel industry. Their primary collaborators are not fellow influencers but the corporate entities that define high-end tourism. They have established working relationships with premier hotel groups and have become go-to partners for national tourism boards seeking to promote their countries as family-friendly luxury destinations. This positions them not just as content creators, but as key marketing assets for a multi-billion dollar industry.
Globetrotters: Public Reception
For all their success, the Globetrotters brand is shadowed by significant public criticism. The most persistent and serious accusation is that of child exploitation. Critics argue that the van der Valk children are used as “props” in a commercial enterprise, their childhood moments monetized for brand deals and audience growth. This debate has gained tangible legal weight, as their activities intersect directly with new regulations being developed in the Netherlands aimed at curbing child labor within the digital content sphere.
Secondary allegations compound this core ethical issue. Many observers critique the “unattainable” and highly staged nature of their content, arguing it promotes a false, inauthentic picture of family life and travel. Their extensive and frequent long-haul flights have also drawn condemnation for their environmental impact. Furthermore, critics often point to what they perceive as a lack of acknowledgement of the significant pre-existing privilege that enables their globe-trotting lifestyle, making their “how-to” travel tips feel out of touch for an average family.
In response to these criticisms, Daan and Esmée maintain that they operate as a family first and a business second. They assert that their children genuinely enjoy the travel lifestyle and that these experiences provide them with a unique and valuable global education.
Globetrotters Today
Today, Daan and Esmée van der Valk are a family of five, navigating the complexities of raising three young children while managing a demanding, high-profile digital brand. They remain leaders in the luxury travel space, their follower count and brand partnerships reflecting a business model that is, by all commercial metrics, a resounding success. However, they stand at a critical juncture. The growing public discourse around the ethics of “sharenting” and the looming shadow of potential government regulation in their home country present existential threats to their brand as it currently exists. The future of Globetrotters will depend entirely on their ability to navigate these turbulent waters, reconciling their commercial ambitions with the escalating ethical questions that surround their idyllic, curated world.