family group tourism definition

Pigtirc 13.3 Authorship networks.

turcs. However, researchers have paid much greater attention to family visitors from Asia from 2005 onwards. Much less research utilised samples from Central and South America. Additionally, family tourists from Africa and Arctic Regions have received scant attention from researchers.

Research methods, themes and theory lenses

Based on our analysis, family tourism researchers have embraced both qualitative (46%) and quantitative (46%) research methods in their investigations. About 8% of research in this field utilised a mixed method approach. The significant utilisation of various qualitative methods may reflect the complexity’ of understanding the contextual nuances of the family system in tourism and the challenges associated with uncovering the perspectives of multiple related members in the system and the views of (young) children in particular. When examining methodological trends from a historical angle, we note an interesting upward swing for the use of qualitative

Figure 13.4 Regional distribution of travellers’ origin based on periods.

approaches, and a downward swing in the applications of quantitative methods (Figure 13.5). In fact, during the period of 2015—2019, the number of studies following the qualitative tradition surpassed those of a quantitative nature.

Another interesting result is that our analysis shows that family tourism research largely addresses a few broad themes, namely, children, family role, destination activities, travel companionship and experiences. Children have attracted considerable attention in recent years as indicated in the total number of publications (23%). With regard to this theme, researchers have focused on topics such as decision roles, special needs children, young children, information search, learning, children as study subjects, views on travel and perceptions of specific types of travel experience. The second most popular theme was family role corresponding to 16% of the studies, followed by destination activities (14%), travel companionship (9%) and specific experience evaluations (6%). Other topics (23%) addressed include family function, travel benefits and motivation, and travel assistance.

A closer examination of research themes over time shows an evolving pattern (Figure 13.6). During the period 1975—1984, there were only two themes that the researchers focused on: adverse effects of family tourism and family role influences. The number of research topics

Figure 13.5 A longitudinal view of family research methodology.

Figure 13.6 Timeline distribution of themes in family tourism research.

appears to broaden over the past five decades, with a narrow set of topics prior to 2005 and a much larger set of topics post 2005. This correlates with the much greater number of publications since 2015.

Another finding is that researchers have attempted to couch their research in various theoretical lenses from social psychology', psychology, sociology and family studies. Table 13.2

Table 13.2 Theoretical lenses

represents a sample of theoretical concepts and theories utilised in family tourism research. For the most part, these theories have been used to serve as a theoretical backdrop, guide hypothesis development or support the validity of empirical discoveries.

Trends in family tourism

Journal of Tourism Futures

ISSN : 2055-5911

Article publication date: 16 March 2015

Families represent a large and growing market for the tourism industry. Family tourism is driven by the increasing importance placed on promoting family togetherness, keeping family bonds alive and creating family memories. Predictions for the future of family travel are shaped by changes in demography and social structures. With global mobility families are increasingly geographically dispersed and new family markets are emerging. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the trends that shape the understanding of families and family tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper examines ten trends that the authors as experts in the field identify of importance and significance for the future of family tourism.

What emerges is that the future of family tourism lies in capturing the increasing heterogeneity, fluidity and mobility of the family market.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the understanding about the changes taking place in family tourism and what it means to the tourism industry in the future.

Schänzel, H.A. and Yeoman, I. (2015), "Trends in family tourism", Journal of Tourism Futures , Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 141-147. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-12-2014-0006

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Heike A. Schänzel and Ian Yeoman

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

Family travel is predicted to grow at a faster rate than all other forms of leisure travel, partly because it represents a way to reunite the family and for family members to spend time with each other, away from the demands of work ( Schänzel et al. , 2012 ). At the same time family tourism is phenomena shaped by changes in demography and social structures which are slow moving. These include higher rates of female participation in the labour market, higher divorce rates, rising and longer enrolment in tertiary education, growing numbers of elderly people, more foreign‐born members of the population, and so forth. As a consequence of demographic changes, the concept of the family unit might be in question. However from another perspective, family relations may in the future be reconfigured on new, more sustainable foundations. We may increasingly see networks of loosely connected family members from different marriages, partnerships and generations emerging, who devise fresh approaches to cohesion and solidarity. Growing better‐integrated ethnic communities may help to instil more positive family values (old and new) into mainstream society. Children and families form the closest and most important emotional bond in humans. This relationship is what drives humanity and society, and as such the family is the centre of human activity ( Yeoman, 2008 ). Families include single parents, blended families, involved fathers and same sex parentage. Families, like other market segments, seek travel destinations that offer relaxation, novelty, outdoor activities and arts and heritage sites. However, families are less likely than other segments to indulge in the local culture. Seeking destinations for relaxation is the largest differentiator for families compared to non‐families in Australia, the UK and the USA, whereas, shopping was the top holiday activity for families in China and Columbia ( Euromonitor, 2013 ). Then there are families without children.

Family tourism is one of the most important sectors of the tourism industry around the world and accounting for about 30 per cent of the leisure travel market ( Schänzel et al. , 2012 ). Looking to the future, what are the trends that will shape the future? This paper examines ten trends that the authors, who are experts in the field, identify of importance and significance for the future.

1. Changing family structures

Longevity and smaller core families have led to the family becoming more vertical rather than statically horizontal in form. Grandparents are enjoying more time with their grandchildren as they live longer. Consider the following; in 1960 the life expectancy of a UK woman was 73 and the mean age for giving birth was 27. Presently, the life expectancy for a woman is 81.9 and the age for giving birth is increasingly in their 30s. Present day grandparents can expect to enjoy several more years with their grandchildren than those of the 1960s ( Yeoman, 2012 ). The verticalisation of the family is apparent through more grandparents becoming involved in caring for their grandchildren. Where siblings within a larger family would have previously been responsible for baby – sitting duties, grandparents in the vertical family are now taking their place. As Briggs (2001) points out the prominence of these inter – generational relationships play a central role in the family network due to this verticalisation. Indeed, as people live to a greater age and childcare becomes more expensive we expect grandparents to continue to play an active role in their grandchildren's life.

2. Immigration

According to the World Bank, in 2010, more than 200 million people (or 3 per cent of the world's population) lived outside their country of birth. Of these, two out every five immigrants had moved from emerging and developing countries to developed countries. The growth in the number of residents living abroad has been beneficial to travel and tourism as people tend to return home to visit friends and family and vice versa. From the USA with 23 million foreigners to Saudi Arabia where 30 per cent of residents are non‐Saudis, there is no corner in the world that remains untouched by migration.

In 2009, 20% of Spanish departures were made to visit friends and relatives, according to the Institute of Tourism Studies. Roughly 7% of the Spanish population is of foreign origin, with Moroccans accounting for 19% of foreign citizens in the country. Germans, French and British are the next largest source countries, accounting for 8.7%, 7.0% and 6.6% of foreign citizens in 2010 .

According to the UK's Office for National Statistics, departures to visit friends and family accounted for 19.8% of UK departures in 2009, but only 13.9% of spending. In 2010, the percentage of outbound trips made to visit friends and relatives dropped to 19.4% due to the ongoing economic recession in the UK. Residents from India and Poland are the largest groups, with around 650,000 foreign citizens from each country living in the UK in 2010.

As we can see from these European statistics, Europe is a place without migration boundaries. As European Union citizens, people in the UK can take advantage of free movement and are resettling, often in the preferred destinations of Spain and France. Indeed, the landscape of the UK is changing as inbound migration has made London, for example, a melting pot of international inhabitants from a multitude of countries, anywhere from Poland to Somalia. Simply put, people no longer live next door to many of their family members.

3. Multi‐generational travel

Increasingly re‐connection holidays across generations become a way for extended families to spend valuable time together ( Butlins, 2012 ). A survey in the USA by Trip Advisor (2011) reveals that 37 per cent of respondents plan to take a multi‐generational family trip in that year. Today, an estimated 75 per cent of travellers plan their holiday around a milestone event such as a birthday, reunion, wedding or anniversary, and even a holiday, to bring family members together. Several demographic trends are behind this growth: migration, longevity and lower birth rates. Today most extended families live geographically apart and increasing longevity has led to stronger multi‐generational ties combined with smaller families ( OECD, 2008 ). Fewer children in society mean they become more important and the focus across generations. More baby boomers are becoming grandparents who are typically healthier, mobile and want to spend quality, fun time with their grandchildren. The trend is that with increased mobility inter‐generational re‐connection holidays allow geographically dispersed family members to bond and create lasting memories. It, thus, achieves multiple goals.

4. Social capital and creating memories

The social benefits of tourism for its participants have been identified for some time within family tourism as opportunities for bonding, communication and strengthening of relationships ( Carr, 2011 ; Shaw et al. , 2008 ). Holidays are often the only time the whole family spends together for an extended period without the distractions of work and school. Holidays then are considered a symbolic time out of the normal that warrants remembering and are used for generating social identities in family members. (Re)connecting social relations on holiday is behind the meaning of social capital construction here which make a valuable part in the social identity formation. Photographic images capturing these intimate and meaningful family interactions help in the creation of social identities through producing rather than reflecting family life ( Larsen, 2005 ). Family holidays then increasingly serve a purpose of integrating people through tourism and can be seen as a social practice that involves social capital formation and memory creation that becomes integral to social life.

5. Helicopter parents

The phenomenon known as helicopter parenting has become well and truly entrenched in the US cultural lexicon. Appearing first in the 1990s, the term is used to describe how some parents “hover” above the lives of their children, ready to swoop at a moment's notice to either intervene in their child's interest or contribute to key life – decisions traditionally taken independently by the young adult ( Yeoman, 2008 ; Fingerman et al. , 2012 ). From a business perspective, parents’ anxiousness means a level of reassurance, particularly from sources that can relate first‐hand experiences before they make the final decision. Parents will search different channels for recommendations, for example from www.tripadvisor.com or from friends and family. As the internet is an important source of information, tour operators and travel agents need to host online forums (where consumers exchange ideas and have a source of truthful information) and virtual tours of properties. All of this provides parents with reassurance in making a decision.

6. Experiential family holidays

The core product of tourism are the experiences gained ( Prentice et al. , 1998 ). For families the holiday experiences centre on spending time “with” the family doing fun activities that are different to normal and which create positive memories ( Schänzel et al. , 2012 ; Shaw et al. , 2008 ). International holidays are perceived as offering more novel or grander experiences than those closer to home. The propensity for overseas holidays generally increases with the age of the children, as families with older children seek more exotic or grander experiences ( Blichfeldt, 2007 ). In affluent societies about 90 per cent of people agreed in a survey that luxury for them meant time for themselves and with their family, and family holidays topped the list ( Visa, 2013 ). Life is then about sharing great experiences for those who can afford it. Families are also increasingly seeking adventure travel experiences. There is a trend towards families looking to be active together and having more authentic experiences on holiday.

7. Children as sophisticated consumers

Eager to grow up, today's children, like youngsters before them, are zealously trying to emulate the consumer habits of those older than them. Businesses have been quick to recognise that the growing distinction between children's ages is pronounced enough to warrant products and services specifically focused on those tweens who are aspiring to become more like teenagers and adults ( Yeoman et al. , 2012 ). Children have always had specific consumer needs. The difference today compared with earlier is perhaps that more and more products are targeting these tween needs from an earlier age. Whether we think this a blameworthy development or whether children are just evolving faster than before, something of a shrinking of childhood seems to have taken place. This phenomenon is often referred to as “age compression” or “children growing older younger”. In the 1960s, childhood was a distinct stage and it had been only roughly a decade since the world had discovered or invented the “teenager”. Today, children seem to adopt the habits and attitudes of what has so far been considered the teen domain at an earlier age than previously – hence the emergence of the “tween” (preadolescence, that is, the stage between middle childhood and adolescence in human development, in the range of 8‐12 years old). There can be no doubt that the concepts of both “childhood” and “youth” are being redefined and that, as consumers, today's kids are very different and do not hesitate to use “pester power” if needed ( Euromonitor, 2014a, b ).

8. Blended families

There is recognition that the definition of family has changed, to the effect that most refer to “families” rather than the “family”, in that different family members are likely to perceive the composition of their families in different ways ( Dumon, 1997 ). This is reflective of the decline of the nuclear family, increasing divorce rates and the rise of reconstituted or blended families. While families are separating through divorce, people are forming new families, while often still being networked to their old ones through their children. Social, as opposed to biological, parenting is an increasing phenomenon in family life. More and more men and women raise children who are not biologically their own. This has implications on family holiday behaviour with more complicated travel arrangements needed and presenting different family group dynamics. There is also a trend towards children from divorced households getting extra and more enticing holidays with their respective blended families as each parent tries to out trump the other.

9. New family markets

As world travel continues to grow, fundamentally driven by the increased wealth from markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). New tourists see new places, whether travelling as individuals, groups or families. In China, family tourism in 2013 represented 23.9 per cent of all international arrivals. With rising disposable incomes and the improving living standards of Chinese consumers, domestic leisure tourism was welcomed by Chinese consumers and registered healthy growth of 12 per cent in 2013 in terms of the number of trips ( Euromonitor, 2014a ). India, like other countries is seeing the emergence of a wealthy middle class who see travel as the new luxury shaped by a desire for new experiences and new destinations. Due to the relative low price package, holidays are very popular amongst Indian families with domestic destinations such as Kerala, Puri and Madhya Mahal the most popular holiday spots. Yeoman (2012) points out that as wealth increases the families of India and China become the new family markets for the Disneylands of Paris, Los Angeles and Toyko. The future of world tourism will be shaped by these and other emerging markets.

The continuing change in gender roles and parenting behaviour can have significant influences on family holiday experiences. In contemporary society, both mothers and fathers are expected to embrace more equal responsibilities at home and with childcare. These societal changes have led to intensive mothering ( Arendell, 2000 ) and involved fathering ( Kay, 2009 ), implying a more concerted and time consuming effort in raising fewer children than in previous generations. This implies that the traditional roles of parents are extended to encompass a wider variety of parental behaviour towards children on holidays. Increasingly this involves resistance to traditional parental discourses, such as snowboarding mums ( Spowart et al. , 2008 ) and shopping tour dads. Fathers become more actively involved with their children in sport, leisure and on holiday, as entertainers and educators ( Schänzel and Smith, 2011 ). Females represent the fastest growing demographic participating in physically demanding leisure pursuits which are typically viewed as male‐dominated domains ( Roster, 2007 ). In the future, gender constructs will become more diversified not just for parents but also for the children and centre more on having active fun together no matter what the activity.

Conclusions

Families play an important role for the tourism industry despite the demise of traditional family models. There is a myth of the decline of the family when in fact families today are just differently connected than previously. Families can range from a minimum of two (single parent with one child) to multi‐generational families (any number of adults and children) and increasingly move away from traditional family sizes and gender orientations (two heterosexual parents and two children). Holidays can play an important role in strengthening family relationships and building of social and family capital within the immediate and extended family by overcoming increasing mobility issues. Family travel and visiting of friends and relatives (VFR) travel then are more resilient than other forms of tourism, as people will always travel to reconnect. There are new family tourism markets emerging and traditional family markets are venturing further and becoming more adventurous. This means that the tourism industry needs to better cater to this increasing diversity of the family market in the future.

The tourism industry also requires better understandings of the complex purchasing decisions as families are becoming more democratic and destination choice and holiday activities are discussed among all family members, including children. However, children cannot be considered as a homogenous group and age can be a big differentiator as toddlers have very different requirements to teenagers. This should lead to more creative and innovative marketing campaigns that engage the young tourists at their appropriate ages, especially as they are the next generation of tourists. Investing into the travelling children of today then will shape the future of tourism. If the tourism industry gets it right and minimises inconveniences and conflicts for families through better planning, success will follow as the family market is economically substantial and predicted to grow in the future. Increased life expectancy, shifting grandparent and parental roles and more emphasis placed on fewer children will fuel that demand. While the focus on holiday is on relaxation and engaging in novel family activities to create happy memories, it is just as important to ensure children can have fun in safe environments while the rest of the family can pursue their own interests. The future of family tourism then lies in capturing the diverse needs of children and adults of different ages, from diverse ethnic backgrounds and with diverse family structures. The trends then point towards increasing heterogeneity, fluidity and mobility in families who travel in the future.

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Schänzel, H. , Yeoman, I. and Backer, E. (Eds) ( 2012 ), Family Tourism: Multidisciplinary Perspectives , Channel View , Bristol .

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Further reading

Backer, E. and Schänzel, H. ( 2013 ), “ Family holidays – vacation or obli‐cation? ”, Tourism Recreation Research , Vol. 38 No. 2 , pp. 159 - 73 .

Obrador, P. ( 2012 ), “ The place of the family in tourism research: domesticity and thick sociality by the pool ”, Annals of Tourism Research , Vol. 39 No. 1 , pp. 401 - 20 .

Office of National Statistics ( 2013 ), Family Spending , Office of National Statistics , Newport , available at: www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_social/familyspending2013.pdf (accessed 22 November 2014).

Schänzel, H.A. and Smith, K.A. ( 2014 ), “ The socialization of families away from home: group dynamics and family functioning on holiday ”, Leisure Sciences , Vol. 36 No. 2 , pp. 126 - 43 .

About the authors

Dr Heike A. Schänzel is an expert in family tourism having completed a PhD on this topic at the Victoria University of Wellington and now resides at the Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand).

Dr Ian Yeoman is a Specialist Tourism Futurologist who believes in Star Trek, an eternal optimist, is Sunderland AFC mad and enjoys cooking. Ian is a Trainee Professor at the Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) who is studying towards a higher Doctorate.

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Understanding Family Tourism: A Perspective of Bibliometric Review

Guanghui qiao, qingwen chen, qiaoran jia.

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Edited by: Raman Kumar, Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, India

Reviewed by: Maria Helena De Aguiar Pereira E. Pestana, University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal; Andy Wai Kan Yeung, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China; Sukhpal Singh, Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, India

*Correspondence: Qiaoran Jia, [email protected]

This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

Received 2022 May 12; Accepted 2022 Jun 7; Collection date 2022.

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The study performed bibliometric visual analyses of family tourism research literature from 2008 to 2021, revealing the knowledge evolution process, research focuses, and future trends in this field. A total of 132 articles on family tourism were collated from the SSCI database of the Web of Sciences core collection and analyzed by CiteSpace. The results show that the number of research studies on family tourism has increased from 2008 to 2021, however, the overall base is small. Purdue University has the highest number of publications and citations. Inter-country cooperation occurs between the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Recently, “motivation” and “benefit” have become hot topics in family tourism research, and “social tourism” has received widespread attention, revealing future research directions. Lehto and Wu are the core figures in the family tourism field, and their achievements have been highly cited and peer-recognized. This study focuses on family tourism research in different cultural situations, enriching the knowledge system of family tourism research, and encouraging future family tourism research focus more on seniors and disadvantaged families.

Keywords: family tourism, CiteSpace, seniors, disadvantaged families, bibliometric review

Introduction

With the continuous growth of disposable family income and tourism promotion for family functions, the family tourism market has developed rapidly and has become the most important segment of the global tourism industry ( Schänzel and Yeoman, 2015 ). For families, tourism has become a necessity rather than a luxury. It enables family members to spend unforgettable time together and create collective memories, thereby forming an effective connection ( Lehto et al., 2009 ; Carr, 2011 ).

With the expansion of the family tourism market, tourism scholars have gradually paid attention to research on family tourism. The content of studies includes family tourism decision-making ( Barlés-Arizón et al., 2013 ; Yang et al., 2020 ; Wang and Li, 2021 ), family tourism motivation ( Kim and Lehto, 2013 ; Wang et al., 2018 ), family tourism benefit ( Shaw et al., 2008 ; Lehto et al., 2009 ), and family tourism experience ( Rhoden et al., 2016 ; Wu et al., 2019 ). From the perspective of research objects, some studies focus on the roles of couples in the family ( Rojas-de-Gracia and Alarcón-Urbistondo, 2017 ). Others compare the perspectives of parents and children ( Fu et al., 2014 ), and more studies have begun to focus on the voice of children in family tourism ( Khoo-Lattimore, 2015 ; Rhoden et al., 2016 ). Previous studies on family tourism have mainly focused on western nuclear families. With the complexity of social structure, numerous changes have taken place in family structure. Many special types of families have emerged, such as families with disabled children ( Kim and Lehto, 2013 ; Sedgley et al., 2017 ) and immigrant families ( Yankholmes et al., 2021 ). In addition, in family tourism research, Chinese families influenced by traditional Confucian cultural values and one-child policy differ from western nuclear families ( Wu and Wall, 2016a ). Chinese family tourism reflects this view insofar as tourists pay more attention to children’s learning experiences ( Wu and Wall, 2016b ; Lehto et al., 2017 ) and the tourism preferences and needs of elderly parents ( Wang et al., 2018 ). Therefore, there is a need to conduct a bibliometric study of family tourism research. Bibliometric studies identify the contribution to the knowledge and the development process of relevant fields by combing and reviewing the existing research literature, revealing the current research focuses and future research trends ( Denyer and Tranfield, 2006 ).

Visualization tools can generate figures and tables to help in clarifying the complex relationship between a large numbers of research samples. Visualization is crucial in the field of knowledge. It can help researchers to quickly understand the development of relevant research fields ( Speel et al., 1999 ). This method has not been fully used in tourism research. When used effectively, it can explore the network structure of different tourism environments ( Scott et al., 2008 ).

This study aims to conduct a detailed search of family tourism research literature in the SSCI database of the Web of Sciences core collection from 2008 to 2021 and to analyze with CiteSpace, a popular knowledge domain visualization tool ( Chen et al., 2010 ). This will provide a better direction for the follow-up research and improve the knowledge structure of international family tourism. This study also attempts to highlight seniors, a neglected voice in family tourism. The extension of the average life expectancy and of social development make the intergenerational relationship between grandparents and grandchildren increasingly important in family life, and the number of “multi-generational holidays” and “grandtravel” groups is increasing ( Gram et al., 2019 ). This situation is particularly prominent in family tourism with Chinese cultural context, in which most adult children maintain close ties with their parents, grandparents help to take care of their grandchildren, and adult children provide care and spiritual comfort for their parents ( Gruijters, 2017 ; Wang et al., 2018 ). Older people need a sense of security, family affection, and belonging. Adult children take filial piety as a natural responsibility. Taking parents on trips has become a way of showing their gratitude and filial piety ( Wang et al., 2018 ). There is also growing research attention on disadvantaged families, such as families with disabled family members. Continuous improvements in social welfare offer disadvantaged family groups more opportunities to participate in tourism activities, thereby forming a potentially important niche market.

Methodology

Data collection.

This study uses the SSCI database of the Web of Sciences core collection as the data source. The first search is by topic, (TS) = “family tourism” or “family travel,” in which “topic” covers the title, summary, and keywords of an article. Then, there are 10 searches for “family,” “parents,” “children,” “grandparents,” and “couples,” each combined with “tourism” and “travel.” The searches yielded 3,759 records (on November 20, 2021). Through reading the titles, keywords, and abstracts of each of these outputs, out-of-scope literature (e.g., transport and school travel, n = 1,343, family tourism enterprises, n = 272, medical and birth tourism, n = 654, etc.) was eliminated. Finally, a sample of 132 articles spanning 2008–2021 was retained.

Data Analysis

CiteSpace is a bibliometric visualization software package developed with Java language, which is used as a tool for scientific and technical text mining and analysis. It can reveal the knowledge evolution process of a specific field by drawing a series of visualization maps. CiteSpace helps to analyze pioneering and iconic literature in a research field, hot topics in the field, and the evolution of research frontiers.

CiteSpace calculates several indicators, including betweenness centrality, modularity (Q), and mean silhouette (S). Research literature with betweenness centrality greater than 0.1 is located at the center of the network, connecting different knowledge subfields ( Chen et al., 2014 ). CiteSpace provides two indicators, modularity (Q) and silhouette (S), to judge the mapping effect. Q is generally within the range of 0–1. Q > 0.3 means that the clustering structure is significant, and clustering with S above 0.5 is usually considered reasonable ( Chen et al., 2014 ). Modularity and contour values should be considered simultaneously to ensure a reasonable explanation for the clustering characteristics of networks in CiteSpace ( Chen et al., 2010 ). CiteSpace provides researchers with various bibliometric networks, including cooperation, keyword co-occurrence, and co-citation networks ( Li and Chen, 2017 ). In tandem with the network structure and content, CiteSpace’s burst detection function helps us find special points and identify keywords or articles repeatedly mentioned by scholars in a certain period ( Chen, 2006 ).

These maps can show the development status and changes in scientific structure, and they are used for frontier analysis, field analysis, and scientific research evaluation. This study adopts the following analysis methods: co-citation analysis of the research literature, journals, and authors; network of coauthors’ institutions and countries; and co-occurrence analysis of keywords.

Results and Discussion

Network of journals.

Figure 1 shows that the average annual publication volume on family tourism from 2008 to 2012 was small. The number of studies increased significantly from 2012 to 2013, reaching a small peak, falling back in 2014 to the 2012 level. Since then, the number of studies has grown slowly, with a sharp increase from 2018 to 2019, reaching 28. From 2019 to 2021, the level was relatively high at 15 articles. It seems that more and more scholars pay attention to family tourism, but the overall number of studies remains small, and there is extensive untapped scale and scope for future research.

Year-wise publication from Web of Sciences.

The number of citations of journals reflect the influence of journals ( Garfield, 1972 ). Therefore, the journals were ranked based on careful consideration of the total number of citations and articles ( Table 1 ), and the top 10 journals were analyzed. Annals of Tourism Research published nine articles, with 72 citations and an average citation score of 8.00. Although only one article each was published by Leisure Science and the Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management , the number of citations was high. Tourism Review currently has one relevant article, indicating that the journal has begun to pay attention to research on family tourism. Of the analyzed studies, 45.1% were published in the top 10 journals, accounting for 84.9% of the total citations of all the analyzed literature, indicating that these journals are influential in family tourism research.

Top Journals in family tourism research.

Source: Self complied.

The index of emergent citations shows the active degree of journals. Figure 2 shows the most frequently cited journals in the same year. At present, Leisure Studies has the most citations, followed by Geoforum . The longest citation bursts were for the Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing and Leisure Studies , which lasted for 6 years. In recent years, the citation frequency of Thesis , Journal of Tourism Futures , and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management has become more significant, showing that more journals are involved in family tourism research.

Citation bursts of the top 13 journals.

Collaborations Between Institutions

From Table 2 , the co-operation network among institutions has a high modularity and mean silhouette, and the network graph is of good quality. As time goes by, there are more nodes and links between them in the network, but the overall density value is low, which indicates that institutions increasingly have paid attention to family tourism as a research field, however, a central institution has not been formed to guide other institutions, and the collaboration between institutions in family tourism is scattered.

CiteSpace metrics by co-operation institutions network.

As Table 3 shows, Purdue University has the most achievements in family tourism research, with the highest number of papers and citations. It is also the institution that publishes the most papers in the first unit, followed by Zhejiang University. Although the number of papers published by Texas A&M University and Griffith University is not large, the average citation scores rank toward the top, indicating that the research results of these institutions are of high quality. Overall, the United States has the largest number of institutions, followed by China and the United Kingdom.

Top institutions in family tourism research.

Source: Author made.

Collaborations Between Countries

This study analyzes the author’s national network to explore whether family tourism research forms a stable cooperative relationship between different countries or regions. From Table 4 , there are more nodes in the network and the connections between them. Over time, researchers from more countries participate in family tourism research, and the international collaboration between them is more complex. The density of the network shows an upward trend, and the number of clusters have also decreased from 15 to 10, indicating that the countries network structure is more concentrated.

CiteSpace metrics by co-operation countries network.

The time-zone view of the country/region collaboration network ( Figure 3 ) shows that the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Australia have laid the foundation for cooperation with other countries and regions. Emerging cooperation networks include the United States and France; China and South Korea; Japan, Poland, Russia, and Spain; Turkey, and Serbia, illustrating the increasing frequency of cooperation among some emerging market countries. However, in general, international collaboration in family tourism research needs to be improved, especially between European and Asian countries, so as to facilitate differentiated research within different cultural backgrounds.

A time-zone view of the country/region collaboration network.

Research Themes

The co-occurrence analysis of keywords and keyword expansion allows us to see the knowledge structure of the subject ( Ding et al., 2001 ). From 2008 to 2021, there were 225 keywords and keyword expansions, and 20% of them were used more than three times. This shows that the area where family tourism research is concentrated is relatively small.

Figure 4 shows that the keyword with the highest frequency is “tourism,” followed by “leisure,” “parent,” “perception,” “experience,” “family,” and “children.” From the time-zone view, we can see that the research topic has changed over time. From 2008 to 2012, the research topics covered family travel decision-making, participation, and experience, mainly from the perspectives of parents and children. Family leisure became the focus, and tourism became an important part of leisure activities. Since then, new research topics have emerged, such as family tourism destinations. Due to different motivations of family members, studies on family tourism types have gradually diversified, as in adventure tourism, heritage tourism, and ecological tourism, which, respectively, involve 6, 3 and 4 sample literatures. Among them, the main research directions of family adventure tourism are motivation and the impact of adventure on hedonic and well-being; heritage tourism mainly involves children’s experiential learning experience; ecological tourism mainly involves children’s nature conservation. This development is related to parents’ expectation that tourism will have educational significance for children. Tourism is considered to be the best education ( Yang and Lau, 2019 ). As an informal learning method, tourism is more active, interactive and experiential ( Shaw and Dawson, 2001 ). Therefore, learning experience has become one of the important motivations of family tourism.

A time-zone view of keywords with high frequencies from 2008–2021.

In the past 5 years, “motivation” and “benefit” have gradually become research hotspots. Academia began to pay attention to the travel motives of disadvantaged family groups and the broader significance of family travel. It is worth noting that “social tourism” has become a new keyword in recent years, 17 sample literatures were involved, and the research objects included families with autistic children, low-income families, and families with the visually impaired, etc. As an emerging form of tourism and social policy, social tourism targets low-income families, enabling them to participate in tourism activities ( Minnaert et al., 2011 ). This is consistent with the research on families of disabled children mentioned above. Disadvantaged families have been highlighted and have gradually been included in family tourism research.

Figure 5 shows ten burst keywords that appeared from 2008 to 2021. This burst of keywords indicates an emerging trend ( Chen et al., 2014 ). Since 2008, “impact” has become a burst keyword. This has continued up to 2013, indicating that family tourism has been of broad interest. During this time, “recreation,” “children,” and “pattern” have been mentioned frequently. Family tourism studies are focusing on children’s voices, and the influence of children’s tourism is increasingly influential. The focus on children also mainly around tourism decision, experience, benefit, etc. Relevant studies have proved that children have an increasing impact on family tourism decisions ( Kozak, 2010 ). They do not passively obey the decisions made by their parents and play an important role in tourism product purchase and on-site decision-making ( Blichfeldt et al., 2011 ). In addition, family tourism pays more attention to children’s experience ( Rhoden et al., 2016 ), especially the pursuit of learning experience. And in the recent study of family tourism value, it has become a trend to pay attention to the eudaimonic wellbeing that breaks through challenges and realizes self-development, and the role of intergenerational tourism in promoting personal and intergenerational wellbeing. Subsequently, “attitude” and “participation” became burst keywords. “Travel” and “constraint” were often mentioned. Among them, the vacation tourism constraints of aging parents and families with disabilities have been paid frequently attention ( Kong and Loi, 2017 ; Heimtun, 2019 ). In recent years (2019–2021), “motivation” and “vacation” have become breakout themes.

Top 10 keywords with the strongest citation bursts.

Co-citation Analysis by Thematic Clusters

Co-citation clustering reflects the core themes and knowledge foundation of family tourism research. Figure 6 is a reference clustering diagram constructed using CiteSpace. In our study, six major clusters were identified and featured according to the title of the articles. The modularity (Q) of co-citation clusters in this study is 0.8622, and the mean silhouette (S) is 0.9275, which shows a significant visualization effect.

Cluster analysis of the reference co-citation network.

The most cited papers provide a historical perspective on and reveal the recognition of scientific progress ( Chen, 2006 ). The more obvious the label is in front of the cluster block, the more articles are cited. There are 42 articles in the “#0 family functioning” cluster, and one article with a high citation level ( Lehto et al., 2009 ) discusses the unique interaction among family vacation tourism, family cohesion, and family communication, showing that family vacations play a positive role in promoting family relations, communication, and unity. A study ( Shaw et al., 2008 ) based on semi-structured interviews with family members in Ontario, Canada, discussed the cultural significance and experience of school-age children’s family vacations and proposed that the important aspect in family tourism is the creation of a long-term memory, which will strengthen family cohesion and establish and support positive family awareness. It can be seen that family tourism research from the functional perspective has laid a sound research foundation for family relations and children’s informal learning. There are 41 articles in the “#1 family travel” cluster, among which the two articles with the highest citation rates are from Wu and Wall (2016a) and Wu et al. (2019) . In addition, an article on the family tourism motivation of Chinese adult children and parents ( Wang et al., 2018 ) was completed by Wu and his colleagues. It can be seen that Wu holds a core position in this field, and that research on family tourism in the Chinese context has attracted extensive attention in the academic community. The articles in the “#2 mixed emotion” cluster mainly include the motivation, activities, and obstacles of families of disabled individuals. “#3 neo-Confucian values” has a distinct cultural background, and the research objects in the article are mainly Asian families. The articles contained in “#4 phenomenological study” mainly discuss the accommodation constraints and needs of European parents with children on vacation based on qualitative research and use innovative programming to measure the role of children in parents’ tourism decision-making. The articles in the “#5 couple role” cluster mainly discuss the role of the couple in tourism decisions and indicate that women are increasingly influencing family travel decisions.

Articles With Citation Bursts

The burst of a cited paper reflects the dynamic evolution of research hotspots ( Chen et al., 2014 ). Figure 7 shows the 13 most frequently cited studies in the same year, and Figure 8 shows the annual citation count for these top 13 cited reference from the publication to 2021. The burst of citations began in 2012, and the strongest outbreaks were led by Shaw et al. (2008) ; Lehto et al. (2009) , and Carr (2011) . Carr (2011) offered important opinions on the experience of family tourism, which guided follow-up research scholars and tourism managers. Shaw et al. (2008) and Lehto et al. (2009) mainly discussed the significance of family tourism in family unity, cohesion, and communication. The strongest burst in 2014 was a theoretical article by Obrador (2012) , which focused on the position of the family in tourism research.

Top references with the strongest citations bursts.

The annual citation count for top 13 references from publication year to 2021.

During the 2 years between 2017 and 2019, there was a continuous wave of citations about family tourism. The most prominent citations in 2017 were related to Barlés-Arizón et al. (2013) and Kim and Lehto (2013) . The first one focused on the motivation and travel activities of families with disabled children. The second one analyzed the impact on family tourism decisions in couples on the woman side. The most flame-up research in 2018 came from Schänzel and Smith (2014) . The article provided new insights into family tourism functions according to the multidisciplinary of group dynamics. In a full-family approach to 10 families in New Zealand, Fu et al. (2014) analyzed the impact of family tourism by comparing generational differences between parents and children. Five articles were especially noted in 2019. Two articles, published by Khoo-Lattimore in 2015 ( Khoo-Lattimore, 2015 ; Khoo-Lattimore et al., 2015 ), emphasized the role of children in family tourism. Rhoden et al. (2016) also focused on the travel experience of children. Schänzel and Yeoman (2015) proposed the significance of ten changing trends for family tourism. Wu and Wall (2016a) reviewed the literature on family tourism in the Chinese cultural contest. It is noteworthy that three of the 13 articles are from Lehto and her colleagues. Lehto’s achievements in the field of family tourism are outstanding and have been widely recognized by peers.

The family unit is the center of social activities. The most intimate and most important emotional bonds are formed with individuals’ children and families. Family tourism promotes the family system development and the harmony of society ( Yeoman, 2008 ; Schänzel and Smith, 2014 ). Family tourism plays a vital role in the tourism market.

CiteSpace is a visualizing knowledge graph analysis software package, with more advantages than other bibliometric analysis tools. First, by measuring and visualizing the network of different nodes, the nuances of knowledge can be better revealed ( Chen, 2006 ). Second, CiteSpace can decompose a variety of networks into automatically labeled clusters with terms from citing articles, enabling researchers to identify turning and pivotal points of knowledge domains. Third, the scientific cooperation network can be visualized. More collaborative connections indicate a very high rate of collaboration between research groups. Finally, the burst detection and co-occurrence analysis of high frequency and high betweenness centrality keywords can be used to identify research hotspots and trends. This research gives readers a clear picture of family tourism research topics and their evolution patterns in the past 14 years, finds research hotspots, and predicts trends by conducting collaboration network analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and co-citation analysis.

Through collaboration network analysis, the study provides an understanding and interpretation of the most cited authors and the active citation journals, including identifying the institutions and countries at the forefront of family tourism research. Through the co-occurrence analysis of keywords, we found that “motivation” and “benefit” had been popular keywords in the past 5 years. Related articles put significant attention on children, and some new viewpoints have been proposed, such as the travel motivation of senior parents and of families with disabled children. The co-citation analysis of the literature shows the dynamic evolution of family tourism research hotspots and helps readers to quickly interpret the basic and outstanding studies.

Family tourism research is affected by different cultural contests, social conditions, and economic development. Therefore, family tourism research scenarios need to be diversified to enrich their knowledge systems. The results of this study encourage future research to pay attention to the voices of elderly family members and the influence of family tourism on the physical and mental health, subjective well-being, and self-value realization of elderly family members. This research aims to fill the gap in the “parents-oriented” travel motivation study and give support to the promotion of active aging. In practice, this study offers tourism managers the ability to effectively understand current and future family tourism market needs and restrictions in order to propose more targeted products.

This study’s limitations are as follows. First, due to the constraints of CiteSpace, the sample literatures are limited to the SSCI from the WoS Core Collection, and the authors only selected articles and reviews in the collections, excluding other published works and there are some tourism journals and related articles missing. In order to alleviate this limitation, we discussed highly cited literatures in co-citation analysis. Besides, the language limitations of the research team confine this study to journals published in English. However, many literature on family tourism have been published in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and other languages.

In future studies, it is necessary to further study family tourism in different family types, and pay attention to the travel preferences and needs of different family members, especially the seniors. In order to promote active aging, it is necessary to discuss the benefits of family tourism from the perspective of the seniors and help them achieve intergenerational happiness.

Author Contributions

GQ: conceptualization, validation, formal analysis, investigation, writing – original draft preparation, and funding acquisition. YC: writing – original draft preparation, methodology, and data curation. QC: conceptualization, methodology, and data curation. QJ: data curation and review and editing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

This work was supported by the Scientific Research and Creation Project of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism (No. 2021KYY025); National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 21BGL282).

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Families with children represent a significant proportion of the global population and an important market for tourism. Children and families form the closest and most important emotional bond in humans. It is this relationship that drives demand. It is estimated that this segment accounts for about 30 % of leisure travel (Travelhorizons (25 June 2014)." href="#ref-CR616" id="ref-link-section-d51283480e285">2009 ) and half of all visits to attractions in the United States.

A family unit is generally considered to consist of at least one adult and one child. Nonetheless the diverse combinations of parents, other adults, and children that coexist within households may all be defined as “families” (Carr 2011 ). There are four life-stage groups: pre-family/no family, family, third age (empty nest), and retirement.

In the United Kingdom, family holidays were embedded in the working class culture in the early 1900s. Entrepreneur Billy Butlin was among the first to recognize the importance of this market and set up holiday camps in the mid 1930s. This, for many...

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Butlins 2012 The Butlins Future Report < www.butlins.com/pdfs/future-report.pdf > (22 June 2014).

Carr, N. 2011 Children’s and Families’ Holiday Experiences. London: Routledge.

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Schänzel, H. (2016). Family tourism. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01384-8_258

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