Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Democracy and anxious parents
Children are part of the decision-making process regarding where to go
and what to do on holiday. As such, tourism businesses need to develop
innovative and effective communication methods that engage all family
members from the start of the family holiday planning process. This means
designing websites and brochures for all the family rather than just the key
decision-makers. Business will increasingly wish to engage with children,
although there are ethical dilemmas concerning marketing to children.
Anxious parents mean that families need a higher level of reassurance,
particularly from sources that can relate first-hand experiences before they
make the final decision. Parents will search different channels for recom-
mendations, for example from http://www.tripadvisor.com or from friends.
As the internet is an important source of information, tour operators and
travel agents need to host online forums (where consumers exchange ideas
and have a source of truthful information) and virtual tours of properties.
All of this provides parents with reassurance in making a decision. These
anxious parents have a tendency to over-schedule every aspect of their
children's lives. For a growing number of middle-class children especially,
their free time is a constant round of afternoon school clubs, music lessons
and organised leisure activities. Anxious parents may monitor children's
whereabouts using GPS technology to track children: Lok8u (http://www.
lok8u.com) is one such company that offers GPS wristwatches to keep tags
on children. Therefore, tourism businesses may want to consider how inno-
vations such as these can add value to their service offering.
From a destination branding perspective, it is important for organisa-
tions to meet the needs of anxious parents through quality assurance.
VisitScotland's Children's Welcome Scheme is a voluntary scheme that
signals to families that children are welcome here and the establishment has
a minimum number of facilities and procedures geared towards families.
The scheme covers self-catering establishments, serviced apartments,
restaurants, holiday parks, caravan parks and visitor attractions.
As every trend has a counter-trend, the desire from parents for children
to be carefree, just play and not be overprotected is the basis of the website
http://freerangekids.wordpress.com. Here, children are encouraged to be
children and companies are creating opportunities for children to roam free
and discover their creative potential. This is why camping and caravanning
have remained popular among families (Mintel, 2009; Yeoman, 2008). Camp
sites are safe places, offer flexibility and affordability with recognisable pa-
rameters, minimum interference and control; children are allowed to explore
their environment. In addition, the UK scouting movement saw consecutive
years of growth over the period 2006-2010, with membership growing to
499,323, the largest growth spurt since 1972 (Scouts, 2011), a recognition
of a back-to-basics culture as a trend which is the opposite of Louv's (2010)
argument that children are losing a connection with playing outdoors.
