Holiday, What Holiday? Vacation Experiences of Children with Autism and Their Families

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

“…At a great extent, requests related to adapted rooms were mentioned (i.e., away from elevators and locks) and to facilitating waiting times (express check‐in and check‐out and restaurant). Reducing queuing time is in line with Amet's () findings. Mentions linked to the restaurant offerings (adapted menus, quiet areas, and visuals) should also be noted.…”

“…The positive coefficient for intrinsic constraints indicated that customers with more intrinsic constraints are more likely to travel if accommodation is accessible ( β : .489), consistent with priory found direct relationship between travel constraints and intention to travel (Burnett & Baker, ; Daniels et al, ; Israeli, ; Shaw & Coles, ; Turco et al, ; Yau et al, ). As for the open‐ended questions, a high number of mentions of critical incidents were related to other guests complaining about the child's behaviour, as “fear of causing others discomfort or inconvenience.” This goes in line with reported lack of support in dealing with the behaviour of the child diagnosed with ASD and a great public lack of understanding and empathy for children with autism, especially regarding the nature of their condition (Amet, ). As for suggestions to accommodation providers, there was an overwhelming high response to request training of the accommodation's staff, as increasing “sensitivity.” In this line, autism‐friendly staff proposals were one of the key findings at Amet's () study also consistent with Baker et al (2012) and Poria et al () demonstrating that the staff attitude affects the experience.…”

“…As for the open-ended questions, a high number of mentions of critical incidents were related to other guests complaining about the child's behaviour, as "fear of causing others discomfort or inconvenience." This goes in line with reported lack of support in dealing with the behaviour of the child diagnosed with ASD and a great public lack of understanding and empathy for children with autism, especially regarding the nature of their condition (Amet, 2013). As for suggestions to accommodation providers, there was an overwhelming high response to request training of the accommodation's staff, as increasing "sensitivity."…”

“…From the supply side, research has studied the provision of (a) accessible tourist attraction and sites (Israeli, 2002), (b) accessible accommodation information (Buhalis & Michopoulou, 2011;Darcy, 2010), and (c) hotel experiences (Darcy & Pegg, 2011;O'Neill & Ali Knight, 2000). Yet research on families with children with developmental difficulties has received less attention in tourism research, which has focused on analysing the leisure constraints (Emira & Thompson, 2011), travel (Perry & Kozub, 2011) and vacation experiences (Amet, 2013), and the effectiveness of travel agents (Hamed, 2013;McKercher, Packer, Yau, & Lam, 2003). Thus, research on tourism and developmental disorders is anecdotal (Hamed, 2013), as is research on accessibility in hotels and family tourism (Schänzel et al, 2012).…”

“…Environmental constraints, which have been extensively identified, come mainly from the lack of adequate destination facilities (McKercher et al, 2003;Poria et al, 2011). The lack of qualified staff and their attitude (Emira & Thompson, 2011), availability of accessibility-related information (Darcy, 2010;Lee et al, 2012;Shaw & Coles, 2004;Yau et al, 2004), and own environment perception (Amet, 2013) may aggravate the barriers. The above constraints are prominent in accessible tourism accommodation, which is a prerequisite for the destination choice (Market and Communication Research, 2002).…”