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Family ‘time famine’ highlights importance of holidays
Pressures of modern day life are creating ‘family time famine’ with couples and children seeing foreign holidays as more important as ever.
A poll by First Choice found that 99 per cent of families thought a holiday was “an important or very important” time to bond together.
The survey found that Brits are very poor when spending quality time together over meals.
The operator’s marketing director Tim Williamson said: “Our research rather shocked us by showing that one in five families spend an hour or less together each day at home. Only 15 per cent of families were able to spend four hours or more having fun as a family at home, while on holiday that figure soars to 87 per cent of families.”
First Choice, which claims to have more children’s clubs than any other operator, found that the average family share only six meals together a week compared to 12 on holiday.
Williamson said at the ABTA Travel Convention in Tenerife: “Families are using holidays to re-engage. There is clearly a big dis-engagement which holidays help resolve.”
Between them, First Choice and Thomson – combined under the TUI Travel umbrella – offer more than 16O family clubs.
Williamson said the family sector had always been a crucial part of the business, and that was especially true of First Choice as the market continues to grow.
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by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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