The Development of Kids Market in Hospitality Industry

Nowadays, children are one of the most important consumers group in hospitality industry. "In the mid-1980s, perhaps one-third of major retail chains made some effort to target kids as a market. Today, that figure is closer to two-thirds and still growing." (James U. McNeal.1999) More and more hotels and resorts are finding that attract kids' attention is one of the most important way to attract customers. Considering the growth of the family travel industry, a survey was administered to 100 children's program staff working at various hotels and resorts in the U.S. The hospitality professionals did some research and they agreed that children's programs are a growing part of the hotel and resort segment of the hospitality industry. As all the researches I did, I found that it has 20 million new born babies in the world every year. It is a huge market not only for the hotels and resorts. In this year and age, almost every resort has their own children' facilities. They provide different service and facilities to meet kids' needs. For example, the babysitting service, it is really a kid friendly service. A large number of Airline Companies also launched different kinds of campaigns for children. They provide the "Kids go free" travel package for families to get more customers. The professionals realized that a lot of parents and families care their kids' needs more than themselves. If the resorts can offer the comfortable and suitable environment for kids, it can reduce the misgiving of the families.