Gay and Lesbian Families and Tourism - Family Tourism - page 134

for instance, on cruises, holiday clubs and at dedicated hotel or holiday
village complexes. Camping is claimed to be popular with lesbian parents,
in part for the privacy it enables. Mainstream destinations may be avoided
and there may be a preference to holiday in familiar environments. Many
parents will be single with relatively low incomes and those who are couples
will have lower discretionary incomes than the 'non-parent' market already
targeted by the tourist industry.
There is little evidence of the tourist industry offering a product targeted
at gay or lesbian families with children. This may be because of a reluctance
to approach this relatively controversial market but also because the market
is relatively small and lacks the discretionary purchasing power of gay and
lesbian singles or couples without children. In the USA, however, R Family
Vacations has offered, since 2004, holidays for gay and lesbian families with
children, with a particular object of facilitating children meeting other
children in similar family units. The company has done this through a cruise
ship product offer. Another US holiday company, Olivia, which specialises
in holidays (especially cruises) for lesbian women also introduced a family
vacation in the form of a resort vacation at Club Med near West Palm Beach
in 2003.
Holidays, as high-risk, high-involvement and shared experiences are, in
studies of heterosexual families, characterised by collective responsibility
for choice and joint decision-making (Bronner & deHoog, 2008; Kozak,
2010; Mottiar & Quinn, 2004). Such shared activity is more evident for
holidays than it is for most other products consumed by families (Belch &
Willis, 2002). For gay or lesbian families, the lack of gender roles may lead
to the decision-making being even more egalitarian. The direct influence
of children (in heterosexual families) is limited in most aspects of holiday
decision-making (Wang et al ., 2004). It may be that egalitarian ideals extend
to the child in gay or lesbian families and there may be a wish to include the
child because of particular difficulties they may face on holiday.
The benefits of holidays as identified for heterosexual families - improving
and maintaining relationships and, during planning stages, facilitating com-
munication - are equally applicable to gay and lesbian families (Lehto et al .,
2009). These may be particularly relevant given the stresses and tensions
that characterise the lives of many gay and lesbian families. Benefits of
holidays have been expressed, in particular, with respect to 'disadvantaged'
(usually low-income) families (McCabe, 2009; Minnaert et al ., 2009). While
gay and lesbian families are not necessarily disadvantaged in the same way,
holidays do have the potential to benefit relationships and to contribute
to a sense of 'being like others' which may have particular significance for
children of gay or lesbian families.