Thai teenagers enjoy their family holidays more than almost anyone else in the world, suggests Expedia's recent "Importance of Family Travel" survey.
The survey was conducted in conjunction with global research firm North Star and polled more than 17,000 respondents across 28 countries on their opinion on family travel. The study included more than 300 Thai parents, 200 teens and 100 non-parents.
The majority of people surveyed (irrespective of country of residence) travelled with their family at least once a year. In some countries, most teens undertake family journeys twice a year or more.
Strikingly, non-parents, who could be expected to enjoy a higher disposable income, tend to travel less than parents.
The study suggests that across nations, Asians, southern Europeans and Mexicans are the most likely to "prioritise getting away with their family as often as they can."
Along with South Korean counterparts, Thai teens are the most likely to travel with their families twice or more.
South Korean families travel the most overall. Close to three out of four teens said they go on family vacations more than twice per year. As for adults, being a parent is correlated with travelling more, with 68% of parents and only 57% of non-parents said they take more than two family vacations per year.
Hong Kongers, in contrast, are the least likely to journey with their close ones. Just 29% of teens, 25% of parents, and 21% of non-parents take a family vacation more than once a year.
Hong Kong parents are laggards not only among their Asian equals; 30% of Denmark parents reported going on more than one family vacation per year.
While Thai teens take the top spot, their parents perform much worse. Only 58% of parents in Thailand reported travelling twice or more per year, which suggests that their teens often travel with other family members.
While exciting experiences bring all people involved together, Asian teens seem to be more receptive to this notion. The majority of teens around the world agreed that family vacations bring them closer to their siblings, but Asian teens are much more likely than average to think so.
More than 90% of teens in all nine Asian countries surveyed agreed with the statement; in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong, the figure climbs to 98%.
The results could infer differences in travel frequencies are explained by income levels or differing perceptions of the role of family across nations, but Expedia's survey suggests that differences in enjoyment may be part of the explanation.
When prompted, most teens had something to say about the activities they undertook during their vacations, but Asian teens tended to have more to say.
Japanese teenagers took 12.3 seconds more describing what they did during their vacations than what they did in school -- Malaysians' descriptions of their travels were 10.8 seconds longer than their school accounts.
This contrasts starkly with New Zealand teens, who spent only 4.3 more seconds describing their vacations.
Teens tend to attribute the greatest proportion of their favourite memories to family vacations, followed by parents and non-parents.
Almost 80% of Thai teens agreed that the majority of their favourite memories occurred during family vacations, followed by Malaysians (78%), and Brazilians (76%). This contrasts with teens in Hong Kong and Japan, less than half of whom agreed with the statement. European parents tend to be more salty about their family treks. Less than half of parents in the following countries agreed with the statement -- Norway (46%), Ireland (45%), Sweden (44%) and Britain (43%).
"Parents in Asia are much more likely to agree that a majority of their favourite memories occurred on family vacations, led by parents in Thailand (82%), Malaysia (81%), South Korea (74%) and Taiwan (69%)," the report said.
In some countries, even non-parents agree more than half of their favourite moments occurred during a family vacation. In Thailand 74% agreed with the statement.
Perhaps part of the reason why so many cherished memories are created during this time is that families relax some the rules and conventions. "Parents in India (63%), Thailand (57%) and New Zealand (55%) are the most relaxed. Parents from Taiwan (26%), Hong Kong (26%) and Italy (28%), are the least likely to ignore rules during their travels."
Parents from countries like Taiwan (25%) Hong Kong (30%), and Malaysia (33%) are the least likely to change bedtimes, for instance.