Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the family dynamics that choreograph tourism practices (Obrador, 2012).
Research to date has focused on family holidays as mainly associated with
bonding, togetherness and quality family time (Carr, 2011; Gram, 2005;
Schänzel, 2008). The present research aimed to contribute to both theory
and practice by establishing whether stress can accompany the family
holiday experience. It also explored a range of other factors.
Results
There were 20 questions in the survey. All except the last question required
an answer in order to proceed through the online survey. The first question
asked respondents to identify their gender. The vast majority of respondents
were female (88%). Respondents were then asked to indicate their family
situation. Virtually all respondents (96%) indicated that they were part of
a two-parent family. Only 4% were single-parent families. This bias reflects
a major difficulty associated with collecting data from fathers, as identified
by Carr (2006).
The third question asked respondents to select an option that described
the work demands in their household. The majority (56%) of responses
revealed that households comprised a father who worked full time and a
mother who worked part time or casually. Twenty percent of respondents
stated that their household comprised two parents working full time. The
third most popular response was that the father worked full time and the
mother was not in the workforce (10%). Mothers working full time with a
father who worked part time or casually comprised 6% of the responses. As
such, 82% of responses indicated that both parents worked.
Question 4 asked respondents to state the number of dependent children
they had living with them full time. The number ranged from one up to
four. The mean number of children was 2.46. The median was 2, with 36%
of respondents indicating that they had two children living with them.
Only 11% of respondents indicated that they had only one child, which
was the same proportion of responses for having four children. Twenty-nine
percent of respondents stated that they had three dependent children living
with them.
The fifth question in the survey asked for the ages of the respondents'
children. Ranges were offered for selection: 0-4; 5-9; 10-14; 15-18; and 19+.
The majority of children were in the 5-9 age range (72%), which reflects a
natural bias due to the authors targeting primary schools. The second most
popular choice was 0-4 (40%), followed by 10-14 (34%).
The sixth question asked respondents to state how many of their
children went on their last holiday with them. The mean number of
children accompanying the respondent was 2.4, indicating a slight variation
from the average number of dependent children as revealed in question 4.
Responses showed some minor variation from question 4, since question 4
