Activities and Activity Patterns Involving Travel Abroad while Growing up: The Case of Young Swedes

Abstract

Departing from ongoing discussions concerning the changing role and motive structure of transnational mobility among ordinary people, this article investigates activities and activity patterns motivating travel abroad among a group of Swedish youth. Using retrospective travel data covering the years of childhood and adolescence of 140 individuals, three specific issues are addressed: (a) the extent to which travel abroad has become part of a broad range of activities; (b) the role of travel in relation to school and other organized activities; (c) the occurrence and forms of repetitive travel behaviour. The most important findings concern repetitive travel behaviour: a little less than half of the respondents have highly repetitive travel patterns as regards activity or purpose of travel. Moreover, about two thirds of the repetitive travel patterns are largely or completely dominated by trips to the same country of destination. Many are motivated by visiting relatives abroad but the majority are motivated by leisure activities seemingly unrelated to the spatial configuration of social relationships. Résumé: Le rôle des formes et modes de voyages pratiqués en jeunesse: le cas de jeunes suédoisDes discussions contemporaines au sujet du rôle changeant de la structure motivationnelle des mobilités transnationales semblent suggérer que ce genre de voyages devient de plus en plus commun chez beaucoup de personnes qui vivent en pays riches. Cet article explore cette problématique chez la jeunesse suédoise. On aétudié deux domaines spécifiques grâceà des données sur les voyages effectués en enfance et pendant l'adolescence de 140 individus: (a) jusqu'à quel point les voyages a l'étranger font maintenant partie intégrale des activités au-delà du traditionnel changement de routine; (b) le nombre et les formes de ces déplacements répétitifsà l'étranger décrits dans les biographies individuelles de mobilité. Les résultats les plus importants concernent les modes de voyages répétitifs. Un peu plus de la moitié des participants avait des modes de voyages répétitifs qui avaient un but ou une activité. Pour beaucoup de jeunes suédois, les voyages de vacances ou les visites socialesà l'étranger font ainsi probablement partie de leur ordinaire puisqu'on s'y attend et on les considère sans doute pour acquis. Pour certains individus qui ont des intérêts très spécifiques, Travel Abroad while Growing up: Young Swedes 101 voyagerà l'étranger fait partie de l'ordinaire parce que c'est pratiqué de façon répétitive en vue d'activités diverses et dans divers domaines de la vie. Zusammenfassung: Aktivitäten und Aktivitätsmuster auf internationalen Reisen während des Erwachsenwerdens: das Fallbeispiel der jungen Schweden Anhaltende Diskussionenüber die wechselnde Rolle und Motivstruktur der grenzüberschreitenden Mobilität scheinen anzudeuten, dass reisen in zunehmendem Maße zum Normalfall für viele Menschen in reicheren Ländern wird. Dieser Artikel will diesen Umstand im Zusammenhang mit jungen SchwedInnen untersuchen. Unter Verwendung von r...

Educational Tourism and Nation Building: Cross-border School Trips in the Carpathian Basin

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A structural equation model of tourism activities, social interaction and the impact of tourism on youth tourists' QOL

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