Non-Child Friendly Behaviors of Tourism Employees

Abstract

Being a child-friendly tourism enterprise has two pillars. While the first includes physical equipment and service facilities for children, the second refers to behavioral factors that support children’ development and a happy holiday experience. Despite the timeliness and importance of the subject, there are very few studies especially on the behavioral aspects in the literature. The aim of the study is to reveal the non-child friendly behaviors of the tourism employees. In this descriptive study, secondary data were used. The first 234 of the comments made in response to a child development specialist’s question in the social media account were subjected to content analysis and a total of 42 codes were created. The codes were grouped under four themes: “safety and health”, “language used”, “acceptance and respect of the child's individuality” and “unfair and sloppy service”. Based on the findings, suggestions were given to tourism businesses that provide services to families with children on issues that should be considered in personnel recruitment and training.