Creation of family capital through life stages for middle income families in the context of the Irish holiday.

Abstract

Research has established that the benefits of a holiday are short-lived, yet for many a holiday is a very important aspect of yearly activities. The commitment and effort to take a holiday are not fully reflected in tourism research, which has considered this aspect of tourism from various perspectives including holiday motivation and decision-making. Social capital within the family is a theoretical construct developed within the discipline of sociology, and using this lens, the role of the family holiday in the creation of family capital through life stages for middle income families, in the context of the Irish holiday was investigated. Within a social constructivist paradigm, a whole-family research methodology was adopted to investigate the family holiday. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with middle-income families across nine stages of an established life cycle model. In total, twenty-seven interviews were transcribed. In conjunction with this primary research, extracts from oral history archives traced the development of the holiday experience throughout the twentieth century in Ireland. Using a two-step data analysis approach the findings were established. The first step, inductive analysis, generated twelve themes across the various stages of the life cycle. The second step, deductive analysis, then explored the themes under the forms of social capital within the family, and tourism research, with a definition of family capital developed. The use of archival data provides a methodological contribution to the disciplines of history, sociology, and tourism, and contributes an oral history account of the evolution of tourism within Ireland. The definition of family capital provides a theoretical contribution. The twelve themes offer fresh insights into holidaying across all life stages. The suppliers of tourism may consider the conceptual finding of space, facilitating room to contemplate within a holiday setting, the development of family capital.