Enhancing the hospitality customer experience of families with children on the autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine intention to travel to accessible accommodations by families of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the influence of travel constraints (intrinsic, interactive, and environmental), the severity of disorder, and the families' strategies for coping with such constraints. A structured survey targeted at Spanish families (N = 117) indicated that the intrinsic dimension and the severity of disorder positively influence their intention to travel. The study contributes to extend knowledge about travel constraints related to accessible tourism and provides insights to accommodation providers on how to better enhance the customer experience of families travelling with a child diagnosed with ASD.

A Qualitative Research on the Holiday Experiences of Families with a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Again, in another study in which similar results are obtained, families having a child with autism state that they avoid vacation because they have "fear of disturbing others" during travel and accommodation. It has been emphasized that these families have expectations for more professional staff who have knowledge about autism in the accommodation facilities (Freund et al 2019). Similarly, in the present study, many participants state that the staff and guests working in tourism enterprises do not have sufficient knowledge about autism.…”

“…In foreign literature, some studies address autism spectrum disorder with different aspects of tourism such as travel, accommodation, gastronomy, and recreation (Freund et al 2019;Neo & Flaherty, 2018;McKercher & Darcy, 2018;Sedgley et al 2017;Stuhl & Porter, 2015;Amet, 2013;Hamed, 2013). When these studies are examined, it is seen that their findings support the results of this study.…”

“…According to the data of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) in United States, it is predicted that one of every two newborns will have ASD in 2023 (Gökkuşağı, 2014). ASD has increased by 6-15% every year in the world from 2002 to 2010 (Freund, Cerdán, Hernández, Guix, Iñesta & Castelló, 2019).…”

Usaha Malaysia Dalam Menyantuni Golongan Autisme Melalui Pelancongan Keluarga

“…Selaras dengan peningkatan jumlah populasi kanak-kanak mempunyai autisme, penyelidikan berkaitan penglibatan keluarga serta anak mempunyai autisme didalam aktiviti pelancongan semakin mendapat perhatian dikalangan ahli akademia. Antara topik perbincangan yang popular seperti pengalaman penginapan dikalangan keluarga dengan anak mempunyai autisme (Freund et al, 2019), peranan percutian terhadap kualiti hidup keluarga kanak-kanak mempunyai autisme (Mactavish et al, 2007), manfaat aktiviti pelancongan sebagai salah satu elemen terapi carakerja autisme (Sarol & Çimen, 2015;Bumin et al, 2015), penglibatan kanak-kanak mempunyai autisme dalam aktiviti rekreasi dan riadah (Solish et al, 2010;Potvin et al, 2013;Stacey et al, 2018), pengalaman ibu bapa ketika melancong bersama kanak-kanak mempunyai autisme (Sedgley et al, 2017;Amet, 2013), dan suara ibu bapa untuk beriadah (Kim et al, 2018). Namun, populariti kajian berkaitan autisme di Malaysia sehingga kini dilihat masih berada di peringkat memupuk kesedaran tentang autisme yang lebih memfokuskan kepada pengenalan awal autisme (Xiang Neik et al, 2014;Lim, 2015;Mohd Kassim & Mohamed, 2019) dan penilaian kesedaran masyarakat tentang autisme (Mohd Salleh et al, 2018;Hui et al, 2021), cabaran ibu bapa membesarkan anak mempunyai autisme (Chu et al, 2018) dan suasana tempat pembelajaran autisme (Zulkanain & Mydin, 2019).…”

The role of social organisations in the promotion of recreation and tourism activities for people with special needs

“…This low participation has multiple causes. The characteristics of the physical environment and of transportation, difficulties in communication, lack of access to information, inappropriate attitudes of the community and financial factors, are commonly identified by PwSN and their families as constraints to participating in different kinds of activities (Freund et al, 2019;Gillovic, 2019;Innes et al, 2016;Reynolds, 2002;Russell, 2009).…”