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Surprise family vacations have become increasingly prevalent in today’s digitally mediated consumer culture. Drawing on a performance-based view of tourism, this paper aims to explore the performance practices and embodied experiences by which young consumers are the recipients of last-minute surprise vacations.

YouTube offers a space for examining surprise family vacations, as captured in real time by consumers. The visual elements and verbal discourses of 139 surprise family vacation reveal videos were analyzed using a hermeneutical approach.

Findings suggest that surprise family vacations are characterized by three performance practices in which embodied tensions arise between normative expectations and unanticipated experiences: executing the reveal (scripted act versus improvised act), announcing the destination (absolute ideal versus relative ideal) and reacting to the surprise (initial acceptance versus initial rejection).

By exploring a phenomenon in which children’s anticipation for a vacation is largely absent or limited, surprise family vacations reveal culturally idealized norms and performative practices in family tourism. Positioning a family vacation as an offering or surprise for the children is distinct from previous research, which suggests family vacations are co-created. Children of all ages experience tourism-related stresses and anxieties.

The primary practical contribution for marketers lies in revealing how the material and performative practices of a family vacation begins even before a family enters its tourist destination. Service providers and retailers may provide offerings for families to support surprise family vacations, particularly in an increasingly digital culture. This study also reveals opportunities for parents to strategically discuss surprise vacations with their kids.

This study captures the liminal moment in which a child’s tourism journey begins. By using YouTube as a resource for digital ethnography, researchers can better understand how families discuss, negotiate and mediate tourism-oriented concepts, through their lived experiences.

The purpose of this study is to provide a nuanced understanding of Chinese family tourists’ value co-creation by examining three important aspects of family vacation: What do families do during vacation? How do they make meaning of what they do? Do travelers’ role identities within their families play a role in the value creation process?

Upon reviewing related theoretical work, the authors undertook a mixed-method study consisting of both survey data and in-depth interviews.

The analysis revealed three clusters of family interactional content, including We open and share our worlds, We build knowledge and skills and We co-create and co-evaluate, and five clusters of family travelers, including Outdoor enthusiasts, Socializers, Nature lovers, Culture admirers and Relaxation seekers. Family roles, life situations and destination environments also interfaced with family activity participation and family conversations. A family vacation value co-creation process framework with four propositions was, thus, proposed.

Further exploration and validation of the proposed framework and propositions which emerged from the findings of this study are needed. Impacts of various family types and relational dynamics also warrant future investigation.

The results of family interactional and relational well-being facilitated by family vacation are pertinent to academia, industry and public policy-making.

Family vacation can be a positive intervention for the creation of family value and a means of meaning-making. Programs that integrate multiple family roles and address family-level value propositions would be collectively enriching.

The current study initiated a pioneering investigation by providing a depiction of how family travelers experience and make sense of a shared tourism experience, along with their value perceptions in such a co-created consumptive scenario.

Although much satisfaction research examines the role of demographics, few examine the phenomena of family cohesion or travel party composition and the role they play in influencing satisfaction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to leverage the two to further understand satisfaction.

Data from 400 vacationing families were analyzed to examine the factors of family cohesion, activity satisfaction and overall vacation satisfaction.

Contrary to previous research, the results suggest that family cohesion is comprised of two primary factors: emotional bonding and decision making, family boundaries and coalitions. The findings suggest that family cohesion and activity satisfaction contributed to overall vacation satisfaction. However, as an addition to extant research, the findings demonstrate that travel party size moderated this relationship.

This research challenges findings of extant research on family cohesion and extends satisfaction research by introducing the effect of family cohesion and travel party composition. Both suggest and offer opportunities for future academic research. Practically speaking, this research also provides insight for practitioners as to why “travel party composition” should be regarded as an operative, rather than a descriptive term.

Practically speaking, this research also provides insight for practitioners as to why “travel party composition” should be regarded as an operative, rather than a descriptive term. Given the results of this research, the moderating effect of travel party composition is an interesting academic finding. Operationalizing this component in practice is challenging. However, practitioners can take the knowledge of the positive relationships between family cohesion, participation in activities, and overall vacation satisfaction, as well as the moderating effect of travel party composition, into account when evaluating guest satisfaction scores, programming activities, and resolving guest issues.

In addition to challenging findings of prior research, this research utilizes data gathered during family vacations; therefore not relying on recall or issues with memory effect. In addition, it extends existing research through the exploration of moderating variables. Finally, the research has practical implications for practitioners to attend to satisfaction of the increasing global family leisure market.

The Co‐ordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) is a social constructionist theory of human action which provides insight into the structure and process of multi‐person decision making. In the CMM analysis presented here, the Hughes family′s vacation decision making supplies an episode within which the family′s socially constructed resources are expressed and recreated. CMM is a technology offering considerable promise to new paradigm consumer researchers.

This study adopted the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) because of its sophisticated imaging techniques in eliciting mental models. Scholars across disciplines have been exploring paradigms beyond positivism due to the question about the adequacy of quantitative measures to capture complete accounts and to deal with vital problems. The marketing literature also advocates the need of a new methodology to examine consumers’ underlying thought and behavior that might help alleviate the industry's inability to translate research findings directly into practices. This study elicited tourists’ mental models, which were depicted on an integrated consensus map with three metaphoric themes. Marketers might translate these metaphoric themes directly into practices. The results of this study strongly support the use of qualitative methodology, more specifically the ZMET, as a means for obtaining the underlying tourists’ behavior that often remain far beyond the reach of traditional research methods.

The analysis of consumer behaviour requires the consideration of various processes internal and external to the individual. To understand behaviour, it is necessary to examine the complex interaction of many influencing elements. This study deals with determinants of behaviour, culture and reference group influences, the relationships between individuals and their environments, perceived risks, and family decision processes. It concludes with an illustration of tourist behaviour modelling.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the involvement of adolescents in family vacation and dining out on the basis of the type of family. Also, the purpose of this paper is to refine the Scanzoni’s sex role orientation scale (SSRS) in the Indian context.

Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires from adolescents in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh (states in India). The response rate is 44.88 per cent. Sex role orientation was measured using the Scanzoni’s SSRS.

There is a decline in the involvement of adolescents through the major decision-making stages for both the services, family vacation and dining out. There is no significant difference in the involvement of adolescents in dual-income and single-income families for a vacation and dining out, except that the children from dual-income families are more involved in destination selection for a vacation. Also, the adolescents in modern families are significantly involved in the sub-decision stages, spending and selection of travel agent.

The marketers should advertise the vacation destinations to adolescent children in dual-earning families. Also, the travel agencies should design their promotion strategies so as to appeal to the adolescent children with modern attitudes. While catering to the needs of a family, travel agencies must present their services in a way that appeals to adolescents in modern families. Also, this aspect must be taken care of in all the pricing strategies and promotions for the modern families.

Despite the large number of studies in various Western countries in this area, few studies investigate adolescent influence in family decision-making in India. The present study takes into account the type of family, single income or dual income (on the basis of the employment of parents) and traditional or modern (on the basis of gender role orientation).

This paper aims to explore adolescents’ perceptions of child-parent dominance in family vacation decision-making (FVDM) by investigating child-parent relative influence (CPRI) and responsibility-sharing (RS) within the family in regard to 15 vacation issues.

This paper adopts Davis and Rigaux’s (1974) framework for identifying adolescents’ perceptions of child-parent dominance across a set of subjects concerning FVDM, by inspecting the distribution of family decision roles across 25 nations. This study then segments the issues regarding family vacations and nations, judging by CPRI and RS within the family. In addition, this paper introduces Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and diverse indices of development for each surveyed nation and compares their respective correlations with CPRI and RS at the national level.

The results, derived from data collected in 25 countries or territories, illustrate a climate of a parent-dominant-to-autonomous style of FVDM for all decision issues and all nations. Overall, both information availability and economizing attribute of issues are related to the democratization of FVDM. The relationship between the child-parent role distribution and national clusters varied across issue clusters. In addition, the paper found the national effectiveness more effective than the cultural dimension in explaining the dispersal of CPRI-RS profiles.

The data collected from 25 nations provide strong evidence for profiling child-parent dominance in FVDM. The data also serve as a basis for analyzing the role of sociocultural and ideological influences on child-parent dominance in FVDM, which was not established in previous research.

子女在家庭渡假决策中的主导地位：多国分析研究

中文摘要

我们针对15个度假决策项目，调查青少年子女与父母的相对影响力（CPRI）和责任分担（RS），以探讨青少年在家庭渡假决策（FVDM）中相对于父母的支配地位的看法。

我们应用戴维斯（Davis）和里加（Rigaux）发表于1974 年的理论架构，调查25国中家庭决策角色的分配情况，从而确定青少年在家庭渡假决策相关决策项目中，子女-父母主导地位之看法。此外，我们根据”相对影响力”和”责任分担”来分别区隔决策项目与国家。我们也应用霍夫斯泰德的文化维度和多元社会发展指数，比较它们与”相对影响力”和”责任分担”的相关性。

从25个国家或地区收集的数据得出的结果表明，对于所有决策问题和所有国家来说，家庭渡假决策属于父母主导或自治风格的氛围。总体而言，资讯的可用性和问题的节约属性都与家庭渡假决策的民主化有关。子女-父母角色分布与国家集群之间的关系因决策项目集群而异。此外，我们发现，在解释”相对影响力-责任分担”侧像的分散方面，国家效能比文化维度更具影响力。

我们从25个国家/地区收集的数据为分析家庭渡假决策中子女-父母的主导地位提供了有力的证据。并分析社会文化和意识形态影响对家庭渡假决策中子女-父母主导地位的基础，在现有的文献中尚未被建立。

Nosotros exploramos las percepciones adolescentes sobre la predominancia de padre e hijo en la toma de decisiones vacaciones en familiares (FVDM) mediante la investigación de la influencia relativa entre padres e hijos (CPRI) y la responsabilidad compartida (RS) dentro de la familia en relación con 15 temas de vacaciones.

Adaptamos el sistema de David and Rigaux para identificar las percepciones de adolescentes sobre el dominio padre e Hijo en un conjunto de temas relacionados con la FVDM, mediante la inspección de la distribución de los roles de decisión familiar a través de 25 países. Luego, segmentamos los problemas relacionados con las vacaciones familiares y naciones, juzgando por CPRI y RS con la familia. Además, presentamos las dimensiones culturales de Hofstede y los diversos índices de desarrollo para cada sociedad encuestada y comparamos sus respectivas correlaciones con CPRI y RS a nivel nacional.

Los resultados obtenidos de los casos recopilados en 25 países o territorios, ilustran un clima de estilo de FVDM de los padres en predominio autónomo para todos los temas de decisión y naciones. En general, tanto en los temas de disponibilidad de información como el atributo economizador están relacionadas con la democratización de la FVDM. La relación entre la distribución de roles de padres e hijos y los grupos nacionales vario entre los grupos temáticos. Además, encontramos que la eficacia nacional es más eficaz que la dimensión cultural para explicar la dispersión de los perfiles CPRI-RS.

Nuestros datos recopilados de 25 países proporcionan pruebas sólidas para perfilar el dominio de padres e hijos en la FVDM. Los datos también sirven como base para analizar el papel de la influencias socioculturales e ideológicas en el predominio de padres e hijos en la FVDM, que no se estableció en investigaciones anteriores.

This paper aims to uncover the relationships between marital power and influence strategies used during couples' vacation decision processes. Marital power includes two dimensions: the first dimension is objective and composed of actual economic resources; the second is subjective and composed of feelings such as spousal love or self‐esteem.

192 couples completed a questionnaire that included statements describing different influence strategies utilized during the vacation purchase‐decision process; respondents indicated the frequency with which they employed each strategy.

Subjective marital power is associated with the use of spousal influence strategies. Objective marital power does not predict the use of these strategies.

These findings highlight a hitherto understudied aspect of marital power – subjective power.

Consumer researchers and vacation marketers should take into account the subjective marital power balance and its impact on influence strategies during couples' vacation decision processes.

This study shows that during a vacation decision process, the marital power balance between partners impacts on the choice of spousal influence strategies. Secondly, economic power is not the dominant factor that affects the choice of influence strategy; rather, interpersonal power is influential in the use of spousal influence strategies during the vacation decision process.

The market segment of families with young children is significant for the cruise industry in China. This study aims to examine the cruise experience of them and facilitate the provision of family cruise vacation products and services.

This study collects online comments on the cruise experience of Chinese families with young children and analyzes the data in terms of text, sentiment and content.

The results of the text analysis indicate issues with several dimensions of the cruise experience. But the results of a sentiment analysis reveal that only 56.76% of the Chinese families with young children expressed positive feelings about cruise tourism. Almost one third (30.43%) expressed negative feelings, and the rest were neutral. In addition, by conducting a content analysis of the negative sentiment comments, this study identifies areas where cruise products and services need to be improved.

Cruise lines are advised to improve the provision of family cruise vacation products and services, such as enhancing physical experience elements, paying attention to human interaction and situational factors and caring for travelers’ personal needs.

This paper explores the cruise experience of Chinese families with young children, which is currently underdeveloped. A methodology approach including text analysis, sentiment analysis and content analysis is systematically applied to offer a holistic and deep understanding of travel experience. A framework for the cruise experience is proposed, which has theoretical and practical significance.

携儿童出游的中国家庭邮轮体验研究

摘要

有小孩的家庭细分市场对中国的邮轮行业来说意义重大。本研究旨在通过分析他们的邮轮体验, 提升家庭邮轮度假产品和服务的开发与运营。

本研究通过收集携儿童出游的中国家庭邮轮体验的相关在线评论, 对其从文本分析、情感分析和内容分析等方面对数据进行了分析。

文本分析的结果表明邮轮体验的若干维度上存在问题。但情感分析的结果显示, 只有56.76%的有小孩的中国家庭对邮轮体验表达出了积极情绪。近三分之一 (30.43%) 表达了负面情绪, 其余的则持中立态度。此外, 通过对负面情绪评论进行内容分析, 本研究提出了邮轮产品和服务需要提升的方向。

建议邮轮公司根据本研究的结果改进家庭邮轮度假产品和服务, 如增强身体体验元素, 关注人际互动和情境因素, 关心旅客的个性化需求等。

本文对目前尚没有进行充分探讨的携儿童出行的中国家庭的邮轮体验进行了分析, 为了更全面深入地理解邮轮旅行体验, 本研究系统地应用了包括文本分析、情感分析和内容分析等方法, 提出了邮轮体验的研究框架, 具有一定的理论和实践意义。

Experiencias vacacionales en crucero para familias chinas con niños pequeños

Resumen

El segmento de mercado de familias con niños pequeños es significativo para la industria de cruceros en China. Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar la experiencia de crucero de este segmento, así como facilitar la oferta de productos y servicios de vacaciones familiares en crucero.

Este estudio recopila comentarios en línea sobre las experiencias de crucero en las familias chinas con niños pequeños, analizando los datos en términos de texto, sentimiento y contenido.

Los resultados del análisis del texto indican problemas con varias dimensiones de la experiencia del crucero. Pero los resultados del análisis de sentimientos, revela que solo el 56,76% de las familias chinas con niños pequeños expresaron sentimientos positivos sobre el turismo de cruceros. Casi un tercio (30,43%) expresó sentimientos negativos, y el resto fue neutral. Además, al realizar un análisis de contenido de los comentarios de sentimiento negativo, este estudio identifica áreas donde los productos y servicios de cruceros deben mejorarse.

Se recomienda a las líneas de cruceros que mejoren la oferta de productos y servicios vacacionales familiares, así como mejorar los elementos de la experiencia física, prestar atención a la interacción humana y los factores situacionales, y atender las necesidades personales de los viajeros.

Este trabajo explora la experiencia de crucero de las familias chinas con niños pequeños, que actualmente está poco desarrollada. Se aplica sistemáticamente un enfoque metodológico que incluye análisis de texto, análisis de sentimiento y análisis de contenido para ofrecer una comprensión holística y profunda de la experiencia de viaje. Se propone un marco para la experiencia del crucero, que tiene significado teórico y práctico.