Non-resident Fathers’ Holidays Alone With Their Children: Experiences, Meanings and Fatherhood

Research on family holiday experiences is largely informed by feminist gender representations. True gender scholarship requires a critical appraisal of gender relations that is inclusive of the male voice in family tourism. This exploratory study extends previous research into separated families and their leisure experiences. Our research focuses on the experiences of non-resident fathers who holiday alone with their children and the meanings of these experiences for those fathers. The study is interpretive and informed by a grounded theory analysis of eight semi-structured interviews with non-resident fathers living in Auckland, New Zealand. Our findings reveal the importance of family holidays to family leisure for separated families and for non-resident fathers’ relationships with their children. Leisure-based holidays shared with their children are special times for non-resident fathers to have fun, to teach skills and values, to explore the meanings of their lives, to (re)build and maintain family relations, and to experience fatherhood

Differential roles of push and pull factors on escape for travel: Personal and social identity perspectives

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd This study examines the effects of push and pull motivations linked to an individual\u27s personal and social identities as key antecedents to escape for travel. In terms of push factors, escape for travel is driven from a personal identity perspective by the need for evaluation of self and regression and from a social identity perspective by the need for social interaction but not enhancement of kinship. Cultural motives that reflect personal identity positively influence escape for travel than destination pull factors linked to social identity. Overall, the study contributes to the existing knowledge on push and pull tourist motivations

Young tourists’ experiences at dark tourism sites: Towards a conceptual framework

While dark tourism aimed at adults reminds them of past tragic fights, faults and follies, thousands of children and youth also consume inherent memorial messages at dark tourism sites. This paper addresses these unnoticed childhood encounters, about which scholarly discourse remains conspicuously silent. At present, dark tourism research focuses almost exclusively on adults and does not adequately explain young tourists’ experiences. How children experience dark tourism sites has much to do with their understanding of death. Because younger children may not possess an adult-like knowledge of death, they are unable to experience a site as dark. Other theoretical disparities include children’s limited agency in choosing their destinations and their unique and often playful exploration of dark places. To address the inadequacy of current dark tourism conceptualisations, we propose a new framework to encourage scholarly interrogation of children’s experiences at dark tourism sites. Drawing from multiple sources including archival studies and original research with youth, we offer a rationale for considering four major, intersecting influences on a young tourist’s experience: understanding of death, visit preparation (at home or in school), site and interpretation features and dynamics of the specific visit (e.g. group membership, norms and itinerary). Ultimately, this paper uncovers potential research avenues to bring children’s perspectives and experiences to the core of dark tourism research

Domestic tourism in New Zealand: the Kiwi family holiday

In New Zealand, 56 % of all tourism earnings come from domestic tourism (Ministry of Tourism, 2009), yet the attention by the government is primarily directed towards international tourism. In fact, Interactive Travellers, New Zealand’s target market, comprise young people and more mature tourists travelling without children (Tourism New Zealand, 2009) creating a gap for families with children. This article looks at the significance of domestic holidays for New Zealand families. It establishes a definition of Kiwi family holidays and explores additional aspects of national and social identity formation

Reflections of Battlefield Tourist Experiences Associated With Vietnam War Sites: an Analysis of Travel Blogs

The aim of this paper is to analyse online travel blogs in order to gain an understanding of the reflections held by battlefield tourists in Vietnam. A qualitative approach utilising thematic analysis was conducted on 20 travel blogs. The findings suggest that tourists can have a deeply reflective experience at sites of past warfare, which includes cognitive dissonance to the war narrative. Tourist experiences in Vietnam presented a connection to the dead (mortality mediation), and a connection to the living (local people). These outcomes led to the overall understanding of battlefield experiences in Vietnam: The meaning of life and humanity through connecting with people, and the passing of time through the writing of history

Mapping the outcomes of social entrepreneurship and tourism on host communities: a three-dimensional approach

Social entrepreneurship has been popularised as a market-based activity with an embedded social purpose aimed at positively transforming communities and society. As a strategy for developing sustainable tourism, social entrepreneurship is promoted as a catalyst for positive community change. This study develops and applies a conceptual model that can help understand the changes directly and indirectly induced by tourism social entrepreneurship (TSE) on host communities. The proposed model integrates three dimensions, namely pace of change, scale of change, and degree of social enterprise control, to logically examine community change brought about by TSE. To operationalise the model, a dual case study research was employed in communities involved in social enterprise-led tourism development in the Philippines. Multiple qualitative data collection methods (semi-structured interviews, community asset mapping workshops, and field observations) and constructivist grounded theory analysis techniques were performed to delineate TSE-induced outcomes. The findings showed four emergent changes, namely lifestyle change, personal development, structural change, and existential change, subsequently interpreted using the three-dimensional model. This study contributes an approach to better explain the outcomes of TSE on host communities, and evidence on the viability of social entrepreneurship as a community-centric tourism development strategy

Family experiences of visitor attractions in New Zealand: differing opportunities for ‘family time’ and ‘own time’

Studies of family leisure and holidays reveal that an important goal of these experiences is the fostering of family togetherness and social connectedness away from usual work/life pressures. As outlined by Schänzel and Smith (2014), however, family experiences of leisure include opportunities for both ‘family time’ and ‘own time’. Family time incorporates opportunities for strengthening family bonds by creating family memories and allowing learning to occur. By contrast, own time encapsulates freedom from those family commitments to pursue one’s own interests and to seek respite from the obligatory commitments of family life. Using data collected in face-to-face questionnaires completed with 221 New Zealand family groups, this paper seeks to explore the extent to which family time and own time experiences are differently perceived by parents accompanying their children to three family-friendly visitor attractions in Christchurch, New Zealand. In particular, the paper explores the motivations and experiences sought by fathers visiting with their child/ren at these attractions and compares these with mothers’ experiences and motivations. Findings show that fathers have differing motivations and seek different experiences than mothers at these attractions, and that these motivations vary based on whether they are attending visitor attractions as sole parents or accompanied by a co-parent