`Portrait of Family Travel' Survey Provides New Insights on Vacation Habits, Preferences.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 1999--

A new national survey of family travelers -- including the kids' point of view -- reveals that parents and their children share some surprisingly different views on family vacations.

While parents cite natural, outdoor-oriented destinations as their preferred venues, kids prefer theme parks.

The results of the survey, the 1999 Portrait of Family Travel, will be presented during the first-ever Family Forum conference on family travel, to be held Friday, June 18 in San Diego at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla.

"To our knowledge, previous surveys of family travelers have focused on measuring the opinions of adults in family travel households," said Peter Yesawich, Ph.D., president and CEO of Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown (YP&B), the Orlando, Fla.-headquartered marketing services firm that authored the survey. "The results of our study suggest that these surveys overlooked the sentiments of some of the most important decision-makers in those households: kids," he pointed out.

Highlights of the survey, to be released during the conference, include:

-- Parents tend to prefer natural, outdoor-oriented vacations,

whereas their children say they prefer the fantasy,

thrill-seeking experiences that have become the trademark of

today's most popular theme parks;

-- Parents, particularly those in dual-income households, say that

the interests of their children are an important factor when

planning vacations, and they view vacations as a way to bring

their families closer together. According to Yesawich, these data

confirm that many parents feel a compelling sense of guilt that

they do not spend enough time with their children, and

increasingly view family vacations as a surrogate for lost family

time at home;

-- The perceived safety of the destination and safety of

accommodations rank as the most important attributes in the

selection of a vacation destination by parents;

-- Children are more interested in vacationing with their friends

than parents, and least interested in vacationing with siblings;

-- The top three places children want to visit on vacation are

Florida, Walt Disney World and California;

-- The majority of kids want to fly to their vacation destination.

The average amount of time they would like to spend traveling in

the family car ("Are we there yet?") is about 12 hours;

-- Seven out of 10 children in family travel households use the

Internet to get information about travel destinations and

suppliers;

-- Six out of 10 kids say they save some of their allowance to spend

on vacation.

The family travel survey was conducted during the spring of 1999. Researchers interviewed 506 adults and 525 children between 6 - 17.

The conference is sponsored by Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown, the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, American Express Publishing, SeaWorld San Diego Adventure Park, Travel Agent Magazine, Travel & Leisure Magazine, Automobile Association of America (AAA), Amtrak, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts and Alamo Rent-A-Car.