Katie Ferro
Parents aren’t only letting over-18s live at home for longer – they are inviting their ‘adult’ children on family holidays, picking up the tab and actively asking for their input into holiday destinations. While the image of a young adult heading off on a Contiki Tour may still be a reality, the family holiday (sponsored by parents) is proving a popular choice with many young Australians.
CRNRSTONE recently interviewed over 300 parents as well as over-18s from across Australia. The findings indicate that parents are increasingly holidaying with their adult children and that over 18-year-olds don’t mind going along for the ride at all!
Some of the key findings of this research include:
Nearly half of all parents who responded still invite over 18s on family holidays
Rather than choosing to travel overseas with friends, nearly half of all over-18s interviewed said they were still on the invite list when it comes to holidays with their parents. A similar number of parents indicated that they still invite their over-18s along.
Parents willing to pay for the holiday regardless of whether or not the over-18 is working
About 70% of parents interviewed said they were willing to pay for their over-18 to attend a family holiday in Australia and over a quarter said they would pay for their over-18 to attend an overseas holiday with them. Over-18s who responded indicated that their last holiday with parents, where the parents paid, was overseas at 44% and 57% said it was within Australia.
60% of over-18s were working full time or part time when they went on holidays where parents paid
While 40% of over-18s were either not working or studying, 60% were working either full-time or part-time when their parents covered the financial cost of their last family holiday.
Over-18s also help parents decide on holiday destination
Parents said that 57% of over-18s had input into where the family went on holidays together.
Over-18s want their partners to come along but parents are not too keen on paying for them too
79% of over-18s who responded said that if they were in a relationship, they would want their partner to attend the family holiday as well. Only 6% of parents said they would pay for the partner to attend.
Why are parents picking up the tab?
Less than 5% of parents said if they didn’t pay their over-18 wouldn’t come. 58% said they paid because they wanted the family to be together and nearly a quarter said they did it because they could afford to.
How long is too long?
While about 20% of over-18s indicated that the ideal length of the holiday with their parents would be a long weekend or 1-2 weeks, 42% said they weren’t bothered about the amount of time as they were happy to spend time with their family.
CRNRSTONE is an award-winning market research company with an engaged panel that boasts over 110,000 individuals across Australia.
This survey was sent to panel members who were parents/caregivers of over-18s, as well as over-18 participants. Following an initial round of questions about family holidays, CRNRSTONE, then went back to participants to drill down on some questions. The findings in this article are a highlight of those findings.
