Holidays are among the top five things that children influence most in their parents’ lives (along with amount of sleep…)
Parents say the amount of sleep they get, the type of holiday they take, where and how often they travel, and how often they eat at restaurants are the top things that have changed since having children*.
Speak to any parent and they’ll tell you parenthood changes everything, but new research from travel company Flight Centre shows exactly how much littles ones influence the lives of their parents. The majority of parents (three out of four) say that decision-making is more difficult since having children, and almost half of parents’ everyday decisions are based entirely around their children.
In fact, children’s’ needs take such a priority that parents say their biggest worry when they go on holiday is keeping the kids entertained (33%) – which is more of a concern than travel vaccinations (7%) or flight delays (16%).
With planning a family holiday causing parents so much stress, it’s no surprise that a quarter of parents prefer to book holidays by themselves and don’t involve their children in the planning process.
However, these findings come as Flight Centre launches ‘Kids in Charge’, a new service that sees role reversal with children in the booking seat. Flight Centre’s expert consultants will create tailor-made family holidays based entirely on children’s ideas and imaginations, so that hard-working parents can put their feet up safe in the knowledge that their holiday is being built with the family’s best interests at heart.
Yvonne Hobden, Head of Marketing at Flight Centre, commented: “Family holidays are where memories are made, but with parents finding decision-making more difficult and revolving so many choices around their kids on a daily basis, we want to bring the fun and spontaneity back to holidays.
“Our team have been blown away by the kind and imaginative ideas kids have come up with, from their own weird and wacky dream holidays to wanting to reward their parents and spend quality time together.”
This should come as welcome news to parents, who say it can take anything from one day to over a month to book a holiday (54%). In comparison, the majority said it took them less than a day to plan a holiday before they had children (52%).
To celebrate the Kids in Charge launch, any family that visits a Flight Centre store throughout December (up until 24 December) and books a tailor-made holiday for 2019, or requests a quote online, will receive a voucher for £250 off their booking (redeemable by 31 January 2019).
For further information visit https://www.flightcentre.co.uk/.
*The top things that have changed in parents’ lives since having children:
- How much sleep I get (54%)
- The type of holiday I go on (49%)
- Where I go on holiday (48%)
- How often I go on holiday (44.25%)
- How often I eat in restaurants (44.10%)
- How often I drink alcohol (37%)
- What car I have (31%)
- Where I shop (28%)
-Ends-
For further press information, please contact:
Nicole Lovett / Natalie Garland / Emma Arthurs
Rooster PR
T: +44 (0)20 3440 8924
E: [email protected]
W: www.rooster.co.uk
About the Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG):
The Flight Centre Travel Group (fctgl.com) is one of the world’s largest travel companies with over 18,000 staff and 2500 stores across its leisure, corporate and wholesale businesses. The company’s turnover in 2014/2015 financial year was £9 billion. After starting with one shop 30 years ago, FCTG has enjoyed remarkable growth and is one of the top 100 publicly listed companies on the Australian Securities Exchange.
All specialist brands under the FCTG Corporate banner offer 24/7 support and the benefits of a blended offline/online solution; global negotiation strength and unique and superior business travel products.
About Flight Centre:
The team at Flight Centre are experts when it comes to travel and are committed to providing customers with a great experience. The company’s success comes down to its people, experienced Travel Experts who are passionate about finding their customers the holiday they want, for the price they want.
Since establishing the first Flight Centre store in 1995, the business has grown its team of Travel Experts to include over 80 stores within the United Kingdom, with new stores opening regularly. Worldwide, Flight Centre has an amazing 2,500 stores across the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, United States, Canada and more, making Flight Centre one of the largest and most successful independent travel retailers in the world. With its global reach and close relationships with the world’s best travel providers, the company is able to provide competitive travel deals.
The Flight Centre team can organise anything from flights and hotels, car hire, tours, travel insurance, visas and more to tailor make the perfect holiday. They also have dedicated First and Business Class flight teams and Business Travel teams to help with any specialised travel needs.
For more information go to www.flightcentre.co.uk, www.facebook.com/FlightCentreUK, www.twitter.com/flightcentre_UK or www.instagram.com/flightcentreuk.
