Tourism and autism: Journeys of mixed emotions

Abstract

There is an evolving tourism literature around psychological wellbeing, social exclusion and disability. This paper advances tourism knowledge into the terrain of psychological health and developmental complexities, and psychological distress. It draws on a phenomenological position to understand the lived experiences of mothers of children with developmental difficulties, in this case diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It discusses the emotional and everyday challenges of caring for a child diagnosed with ASD on holiday, discusses the perceived benefits holidays offer and outlines care-giving strategies adopted by mothers to manage their children's tourism experiences. The paper discusses the uniqueness of the context of autism and problematizes popular discourses, which predominantly frame tourism as pleasurable settings of escape, stimulation, novelty and relaxation.

Responsible Tourism—Integrating Families with Disabled Children in Tourist Destinations

“…The parents understand, see and feel; sometimes they are too exhausted to react or suffer anymore but they are striving to make the best of their children's experiences, they try to find explanations, to find excuses for people's behavior and ignorance. The findings are consistent with results of other studies [31].…”

“…Although all the constraints, specialists studied the benefits that a holiday can bring to families with children with disabilities and the strategies adopted by these families to make the experience as enjoyable as possible for these children [31]. Benefits such as well-being, health improvement, reducing the level of loneliness and social connection were highlighted [32,33].…”

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

“…Particular cases with their specificities were not examined highlighting the crucial need for further in‐depth research of this issue. “Since tourism experiences are journeys of mixed emotions” for families with children diagnosed with ASD (Sedgley et al, , p. 22), it would be advisable to explore in more details the dimensions of this study by means of mobile ethnography and in‐depth interviews. In addition, all families participating were from Catalonia (Spain); thus, further cross‐cultural research would be advisable (Poria et al, ).…”

“…Families play a major role when travelling together with a child with developmental disorders, though the hospitality consumption experiences of parents and carers with children remains underexamined (Lugosi et al, 2016;Sedgley et al, 2017). Although research usually focuses on the person with disability, families' opinions also should be taken into account (Emira & Thompson, 2011).…”

“…According to Perry and Kozub (), there is considerable research on travel‐related issues for people with physical disabilities (Burnett & Baker, , Darcy 2002, Yau, McKercher, & Packer, ), but little is known about the travel experiences of families where one member has a developmental disorder (Sedgley, Pritchard, Morgan, & Hanna, ; Woodside & Etzel 1980). The World Health Organization (WHO, ) urged its Member States to identify and address disparities in access to services for persons diagnosed with ASD.…”