Trends of Overseas Travel with Children (Part3)-Various services related to overseas travelers with children
Nowadays, a lot of services are available for overseas travelers with kids on various occasions. They are not something special, but it makes all the difference whether those services are available or not. This report covers useful services that travelers with children really want to know when going abroad.
Hiromi Nakajima Columnist
The following list includes the services available to children from departing airport to accommodations of their stay. You will find how convenient they are for family travelers. This list is unexpectedly long. To my pleasant surprise, there are ample facilities for kids at airports. At Narita Airport, for instance, following rooms and spaces are available for little passengers.
– Play room: Each terminal, namely terminal 1 and 2, has one play room. There are games for children, toys as well as diaper change. The room is staffed to make sure that the equipment is available. Children must be accompanied by adults,
– Kids’ room: The room is located at terminal 2. It has play ground equipment including a slide. No staff is on duty.
– Kids’ park: The place is both at terminal 1and 2. The open aisle space is partitioned by cushioned bench seats so that children can play with toys such as polyurethane blocks.
According to Narita Airport, the total number of users of the play rooms is about 100 per day. (No data are available for the Kids’ room and Kids’ parks because they are not staffed.) Comparing this figure with 750, the estimated daily average number of departing passengers under 10 years old, one can hardly say that the facilities are highly utilized. Few overseas travelers with kids seem to know that the airport has such facilities. They may even fail to recognize the Kids’ room unless they are aware of the existence of facility in advance.
A majority of overseas travelers with children may be traveling without knowing about the other services offered to young passengers found in the following list. Unless travelers search for the information of such services by calling airport, airline or hotel, or by visiting their websites, they will hardly be informed about them Families who have no specific plans to travel abroad are all the more unlikely to know that these services are available for international travelers.
If the parents who are reluctant to travel overseas with children learn about these services, the negative image of troublesome overseas travel may turn into more positive and enjoyable one.
Traveling mothers’ biggest concern is whether kids are all right during a long flight. If they learn about the support and services for kids during air travel, they will have a more clear image of how they can spend time with children during the flight and their anxiety be eased. It will make them feel more confident to manage the long journey with small children and encourage them to travel overseas.
Next report will cover how the appeal of services provided to children may lead to expanding the market for overseas travel with children.
List 1: Various services offered to overseas travelers with children
