Introduction: Families in Tourism Research - Family Tourism - page 4

emphasises detachment, and so has effectively de-socialised tourist subjects,
rendering such approaches unsuitable for research into families (Obrador,
2012). Research has also not kept pace with the change in family forms and
structures. This has led to limited, fragmented and individualised research
on family holiday experiences. Most family tourism research is market
and consumer driven and focused on the themes of decision processes and
roles (Lehto et al ., 2009), and even here relatively few studies have included
children (Blichfeldt et al ., 2011; Nickerson & Jurowski, 2001). Some research
has been carried out at family-centred tourist attractions (Hallman et al .,
2007; Johns & Gyimothy, 2003) and there are historical accounts of family
holidaying (Inglis, 2000; Rugh, 2008). A historical development of family
tourism in the UK is given in Chapter 4. Specialised studies on the benefits
of social tourism coming out of Europe (Hughes, 1991; McCabe et al ., 2011;
Minnaert et al ., 2009) are increasingly identifying the link between tourism
for disadvantaged families and increases in family social capital, as discussed
in Chapter 7. Families also form an important part of travel for visiting
friends and relatives (VFR), which is perpetually underestimated in tourism
research (Backer, 2012) and is discussed in Chapter 6.
Also evident is a lack of research into the broader experiential dimen-
sions of family holidays that takes into account the perspectives of all
family members and the increasing diversity of family groups. There have
been studies of family holiday experiences that are mainly informed by
feminist perspectives and thus focused on mothers' family holiday ex-
periences (Deem, 1996; Small, 2005). There is little published on the holiday
experience of fathers, apart from their joint parenting voice (Schänzel &
Smith, 2011) and, again, few studies have investigated the family holiday
experiences of children (Carr, 2006, 2011; Cullingford, 1995; Hilbrecht et al .,
2008; Small, 2008). This is in contrast to a research tradition that is inclusive
of children and fathers in related social sciences such as family studies and
leisure studies (Daly, 1996b; Jeanes, 2010; Kay, 2009). This means that little
is known about children as family tourists and how they can be better
attended to. Children are the consumers of tomorrow and their influence
on travel decisions and tourism experiences should not be underestimated.
This is discussed with regard to marketing to young tourists in Chapter 10.
Relatively little attention has been paid to the meaning of family holiday
experiences to parents (Blichfeldt, 2006; Shaw et al ., 2008). The dearth of
research on the family group (Gram, 2005) and on family group dynamics
on holiday (Schänzel, 2010) has resulted in a poor understanding of how
group dynamics can inflame or heighten the individual holiday experience
(Pritchard & Havitz, 2006). This is despite the fact that potentially different
generational and gender needs and desires can lead to social tensions and
conflicts on holiday, as discussed in more detail in Chapter 5.
As mentioned above, holidays with children are different from other
holidays and can involve family group conflicts (Gram, 2005; Schänzel,