"I wouldn't dare go on holiday with you!" The teenage years of travel.
Author: Rebecca Stenson
1 Commentries
Abstract: The perceptions of travel in a 15 year old boy are those of a mystery. Socialisation is truly taking an unruly hold of teenagers, therefore this report looks at the attitude a teenager in the notion of forming on travel and how this could locate future formations.
Keywords: travel socialisation, travel mobility, self identity, family tourism, tourism trends in teenagers
For years we annihilate the notion that our decisions are influenced by our peers, we say that we are 'individual' and a 'free thinker', regardless of the fact we chose that new t-shirt because a friend said 'it really accentuates your waist'. However it's time to bow down to the sheer fact that yes, our socialisation does, infact curve our pathway of life but not just our wardrobe, our tourist footprint.
Socialisation influences everything we do, it builds our self identity and gives us skills such as empathy and humour, that help our decision thinking and ability to socialise with others. One has to just listen to the conversations of "I rode a camel in Egypt" or "Frank said the weather would be good, so we went" about holidays being discussed on the bus or in a shop, and hear the themes a tourist boasts about, to seek approval from their surrounding citizens (Desforges 2000). Tourism socialisation in the modern century has seen numerous niche markets evolve and has indulged citizens into tasting different cultures and to immerse into the lives of the host instead of sitting in the 'tourist bubble' (Scheiner 2007). With the wide spread of technology, tourists may now access information and gain knowledge much more quickly than before. This has impacted the tourist industry to disposition and develop infrastructures to help the host and tourist interact, such as engaging in tours around the slums in India or 'voluntourism'. The rise of technology has also seen citizens have wider spans of friendship groups, trotting across the globe. This was something that happened before the fever for the internet, but was not so common. This has enabled the tourist to have a fresh thought on different cultures, that previously they will have just read about. Alas they can now immerse in conversation in the privacy of their own homes, through social websites and Skype (Lee and Conroy 2005).
This conference paper looked into the life of a teenage boy, at the age of 15 years, it reviewed how his opinions were forming through his teenage life. It reviewed his socialisation and how his friend group and family members could influence him into making future decisions (Scheiner 2007).
The research took particular interest into the patterns of travel; past, present and future that the candidate held. The socialisation of the candidate had only seen family tourism take place to curve his views of tourist visits. This has meant that the self identity of travelling has not fully taken place within the boy, and that he is only just beginning to engage opinions that are not imitated by his parents alone, but by his friendship groups too (Nickerson and Juroswki 2001).
The conference paper discussed the viable theories that are linked towards teenage travel and is influenced by the socialisation upon which we live in. The paper discussed the self identity notion that travel creates a self identity through seeing different cultures and countries, that our socialisation would approve or be envious of Desforges (2000). Unfortunately in the case of the candidate, he lacked the enthusiasm for travel, therefore it was hard to distinguish his true feelings for touring the World. He did however show much interest for the arts and museums side, something that Urry (2007) discussed as being a viewpoint that his parents/peers may have brought on.
Another theory the research looked into was that of Baslington (2007), the travel socialisation. This theory looked at the candidate's car dependency, as the child had grown up with the car being a primary source of transportation, it was interesting to see how this has interacted his 'coming of age' life. The candidate is now entering his later teenage years, thus has more independence from his parent, therefore must travel independently. The study looks at how he interacts with transportation and found that, even though he does prefer car travel, he is likely to use public transportation if the car is unavailable. Although there was a presence of dependency for car travel, before catching a bus that is just as easy.
The report unravelled the life events that had undergone in his early years, including the separation of his mother and father. It investigated that the candidate used to have frequent holidays to short haul destinations. However since the separation, the holidays became infrequent. One can theorise that due to not receiving regular holidays, the candidate may have lost interest in travelling. As the sense of longing was never passed on through his parents, whom may have enjoyed visiting different locations. Is this a trend that may become frequent in a life where divorced parents are high?
Baslington, H. (2007) 'Travel socialisation: a social theory of travel mode behaviour'
(ESC Conference paper)
Desforges, L. (2000) 'Travelling the world: identity and travel biography' in Annals of
Tourism Research 27, 926-945.
Lee, C. and D. Conroy (2005) 'Socialisation through consumption: teenagers and the
internet' in Australasian Marketing Journal 13, 1, 8-19
Keywords: travel socialisation, travel mobility, self identity, family tourism, tourism trends in teenagers
For years we annihilate the notion that our decisions are influenced by our peers, we say that we are 'individual' and a 'free thinker', regardless of the fact we chose that new t-shirt because a friend said 'it really accentuates your waist'. However it's time to bow down to the sheer fact that yes, our socialisation does, infact curve our pathway of life but not just our wardrobe, our tourist footprint.
Socialisation influences everything we do, it builds our self identity and gives us skills such as empathy and humour, that help our decision thinking and ability to socialise with others. One has to just listen to the conversations of "I rode a camel in Egypt" or "Frank said the weather would be good, so we went" about holidays being discussed on the bus or in a shop, and hear the themes a tourist boasts about, to seek approval from their surrounding citizens (Desforges 2000). Tourism socialisation in the modern century has seen numerous niche markets evolve and has indulged citizens into tasting different cultures and to immerse into the lives of the host instead of sitting in the 'tourist bubble' (Scheiner 2007). With the wide spread of technology, tourists may now access information and gain knowledge much more quickly than before. This has impacted the tourist industry to disposition and develop infrastructures to help the host and tourist interact, such as engaging in tours around the slums in India or 'voluntourism'. The rise of technology has also seen citizens have wider spans of friendship groups, trotting across the globe. This was something that happened before the fever for the internet, but was not so common. This has enabled the tourist to have a fresh thought on different cultures, that previously they will have just read about. Alas they can now immerse in conversation in the privacy of their own homes, through social websites and Skype (Lee and Conroy 2005).
This conference paper looked into the life of a teenage boy, at the age of 15 years, it reviewed how his opinions were forming through his teenage life. It reviewed his socialisation and how his friend group and family members could influence him into making future decisions (Scheiner 2007).
The research took particular interest into the patterns of travel; past, present and future that the candidate held. The socialisation of the candidate had only seen family tourism take place to curve his views of tourist visits. This has meant that the self identity of travelling has not fully taken place within the boy, and that he is only just beginning to engage opinions that are not imitated by his parents alone, but by his friendship groups too (Nickerson and Juroswki 2001).
The conference paper discussed the viable theories that are linked towards teenage travel and is influenced by the socialisation upon which we live in. The paper discussed the self identity notion that travel creates a self identity through seeing different cultures and countries, that our socialisation would approve or be envious of Desforges (2000). Unfortunately in the case of the candidate, he lacked the enthusiasm for travel, therefore it was hard to distinguish his true feelings for touring the World. He did however show much interest for the arts and museums side, something that Urry (2007) discussed as being a viewpoint that his parents/peers may have brought on.
Another theory the research looked into was that of Baslington (2007), the travel socialisation. This theory looked at the candidate's car dependency, as the child had grown up with the car being a primary source of transportation, it was interesting to see how this has interacted his 'coming of age' life. The candidate is now entering his later teenage years, thus has more independence from his parent, therefore must travel independently. The study looks at how he interacts with transportation and found that, even though he does prefer car travel, he is likely to use public transportation if the car is unavailable. Although there was a presence of dependency for car travel, before catching a bus that is just as easy.
The report unravelled the life events that had undergone in his early years, including the separation of his mother and father. It investigated that the candidate used to have frequent holidays to short haul destinations. However since the separation, the holidays became infrequent. One can theorise that due to not receiving regular holidays, the candidate may have lost interest in travelling. As the sense of longing was never passed on through his parents, whom may have enjoyed visiting different locations. Is this a trend that may become frequent in a life where divorced parents are high?
Baslington, H. (2007) 'Travel socialisation: a social theory of travel mode behaviour'
(ESC Conference paper)
Desforges, L. (2000) 'Travelling the world: identity and travel biography' in Annals of
Tourism Research 27, 926-945.
Lee, C. and D. Conroy (2005) 'Socialisation through consumption: teenagers and the
internet' in Australasian Marketing Journal 13, 1, 8-19