ABSTRACT
In Britain, around 40 per cent of individuals do not participate in holidays during any one year (Shaw and Williams 2002). Of course, such general figures conceal a range of reasons for not taking a regular holiday, including illness, lack of money and pressure of work (English Tourist Board 1989). A small but growing literature has started to explore these people who are excluded from the holiday process. In a pioneering study, Haukeland (1990) working in Scandinavia categorised such people as either ‘constrained’ or ‘unconstrained’, with the former wanting to travel, but being unable to do so, whereas the latter chose not to go on holiday (see also Davidson 1996; Deem 1996). It is the former group that further research has focused on, with initial attention being directed to the study of socially disadvantaged families (Hughes 1991; Smith and Hughes 1999). Smith and Hughes (1999) have shown in a somewhat limited study that, for these people, the meaning of holidays remains distinctive. Such meanings encompass: ‘escape from normal routines’, ‘the strengthening of family relationships’ and ‘the improvement of general wellbeing’. Of course, these motives can also relate to other holidaymakers, but Smith and Hughes found that amongst socially disadvantaged families, patterns of holiday consumption were also different from the ‘norm’, in that destination choice and frequency were both greatly limited because of economic constraints.
