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A family stacks their luggage on a cart after getting dropped off curbside before checking in at the Virgin America terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Anyone who has traveled with small children knows that it can be ... challenging. The needs of families who drive or fly with kids in tow are often overlooked by travel companies and the tourism industry. And sometimes families eschew traveling altogether until kids are older. That's what the Family Travel Association, a new organization, is hoping to change.

"We want to help parents and inspire them to travel," Rainer Jenss, Family Travel Association president, told USA Today. The FTA aims to offer families resources on how traveling with kids can leave a lifelong impact, ways travel with small children can be improved, and which travel companies make life easier for families with kids.

Jenss, a former publisher of National Geographic Kids, quit his job in 2008 to travel the world with his family for one year. The experience is what led him to launch the Family Travel Association.

"The fact is, the industry has never before come together for the specific purpose of helping families and inspiring them to travel," said Jenss. "Now, the industry is joining forces to present a clear and unified message -- that travel with kids can be transformational, not just recreational, and that there are things you can do with your children that you may never have dreamed possible."

The organization's website offers a wealth of resources for families looking to arrange trips, including information on ways to improve your family vacation, tools that can help families come up with travel ideas, and tips to make traveling easier in a variety of situations, such as at the airport or with pets.