A review of family influences on travel decision making - Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research - page 582

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decisions or behaviour of children and family trav-
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scenario on worldwide tourism industry where the
consumer base of many tourists resort and attrac-
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4 CONCLUSION

This paper has highlighted some interesting aspect
of family tourists as a growing segment in the tour-
ism industry. However there is a need to pay special
attention to the needs of this group of customers
as initial observations of their travel behaviour
indicates that there are several specific needs unmet
by current offers in the tourism market.
When tourists travel with their family, travel-
ling decisions may be influenced by various fam-
ily members. This might lead to specific travelling
or purchase behaviour that differs from individual
tourists. For example, the head of the family may
make decisions for the whole group, thus increasing
the quantity of products purchased, customizing
types of product to suit different needs of different
group members, especially the ones regarding tod-
dlers, teenagers and older people. The paper used the
Family Life Cycle Stage to predict tourist behaviour
as being influenced by the special needs of tourists
at different stages. The paper categorized the specific
needs of family into the offers provided by the cho-
sen destination into specific types of product, types
of facilities, services and service quality as a starting
point in understanding the family tourists. Hence,
the paper concluded by proposing a new family tour-
ist typology and recommending that future research
consider the needs of family tourist and taking into
account the family life cycles characteristics and
decision horizon in the new typology.

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