Deciding on Family Holidays—Role Distribution and Strategies in Use

ABSTRACT

The article discusses holiday-related decision making in families by exploring the role distribution and strategies employed by family members, with particular attention given to the influence of children. Based on the theoretical discussion, a model is developed that highlights the influence of a number of contextual factors on role distribution and decision-making strategies, and which is found useful in the analysis of qualitative interviews with German and Danish families. The empirical analysis demonstrates patterns in the role distribution of family members in line with the existing literature; however, diversions from established knowledge also appear as children occupy a multitude of roles, and the role of the mother to some extent differs across the German and Danish data. Contextual factors like parental perceptions of children and societal structures are useful in explaining this complexity in role distribution. Likewise in relation to decision-making strategies, contextual factors are helpful in explaining the strategies used, in particular the convention that holidays are an extraordinary “free space” which allows for more negotiation power being bestowed on children than in everyday life.

Keywords:

• Family holiday
• children's influence
• role distribution
• decision-making strategies
• context

The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support gained for this research project from the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, and the valuable cooperation with the national tourism organization VisitDenmark, regional tourism organizations, and private tourism actors that constituted the steering committee for the project.Address correspondence to: Anette Therkelsen at the above address.