Quiz time: Which of the following holidays would you most want to go on? A romantic getaway for two on an island paradise? A five-day art gallery immersion in Florence? A Himalayan mountain trek, overnighting in Buddhist monasteries? According to a recent survey we conducted, if you have kids, the answer is quite probably, D) None of the above.
Kids are often dictating where your family holiday will be
Children have a surprisingly strong influence on family holiday decisions. It turns out that it’s not just because we, those of us that are parents, that is, have to think about child-friendly activities and entertainment, it’s because the kids are often having their say when it comes to possible destinations. Almost 30% of UK parents that were interviewed in a recent study* of over 200,000 Brits, said that their children actually choose their family’s holiday destination and over 50% stated that they’d felt under pressure from their children to visit a particular destination.
It’ll come as no surprise to British parents that the primary drivers for kids’ come from social sources, with places their friends have been to’ leading the charge, closely followed by television-inspired locations, previous holiday destinations, and of course, social media.
Cost vs. benefit
We all want to indulge our kids and maybe relive the perfect family holiday we had when we were young, but there is a real cost in achieving this. Over 60% of British families are routinely ‘stretching themselves’ financially to pay for their family holiday each year, and this figure is even higher among parents under the age of 35. This is made even more surprising when just over 20% of all families admit that some kind of debt is incurred just to have the holiday they want. This is unsurprising when you consider that the average cost of a family holiday for the average-sized British family is coming in at around £2,500.
Some good news is that children today are twice as well-travelled as we were. These days, the average British child has visited four foreign countries by the age of just ten, while the previous generation had visited just two countries by the same age. Many would argue that seeing the world and experiencing different cultures is one of the most positive things you can provide a developing child.
Why three generations are increasingly holidaying together
Another way in which family holidays have become even more ‘family orientated’ is that a lot of British parents are turning to the kids grandparents to help cope with the demands of our globe-trotting offspring. Nearly two-thirds of us have been on a multi-generational holiday with our kids and relatives in tow, and the reasons are actually very practical. Nearly a third of us revealed they did this so their children’s grandparents would cover or contribute towards the overall cost of the holiday. The two other reasons that British parents admitted to taking their parents on holiday with the family was for babysitting purposes and so that they can generally get some downtime. At the end of the day, a family holiday is still supposed to be a holiday, right?
“While we expected to find children have an influence on family holidays, we were surprised to see just how much. The research indicates that many parents are feeling under significant pressure to provide the holidays their children want so they can ‘keep up’ with their school friends – which is leading to them stretching themselves financially.” Annie Wilson – travel expert at KAYAK said, “My advice is to be firm about your holiday budget and don’t spend more than you can afford – it is very hard to relax and enjoy your trip if you’re worried about paying for it. KAYAK.co.uk offers tools that can help to plan and manage your holidays such as Explore, which shows you where you can go for a selected price range, and Price Alerts, which ensure you never miss a deal on a flight or hotel by sending notifications when prices change.”
See how far you and your family can travel – within budget – on KAYAK Explore.
Note to editors:
Research conducted by Opinium for KAYAK. All data mentioned based on studies or fieldwork conducted between 8-13 June 2016 amongst 2,020 parents with children under the age of 18.
