Reconceptualizing family tourism constraints: insights from digital platform discussions

Family tourism plays a crucial role in enhancing well-being, strengthening familial bonds, and creating lasting memories. This study extends Travel Constraints Theory by analysing family travel constraints through a data-driven examination of peer-to-peer knowledge exchange platforms, such as TripAdvisor and Reddit, using text mining and topic modelling. The findings reveal that travel constraints are highly context-dependent, varying significantly across different types of family travel. The study challenges the conventional three-category constraint model (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural) and proposes a refined two-level classification framework, offering a more insightful understanding of family travel decision-making. Highlighting the diverse challenges families face, it offers valuable insights for the tourism industry, emphasizing the need for tailored approaches to addressing travel constraints in family tourism.