According to a new survey on sports travel from Hilton Worldwide’s Embassy Suites Hotels, on average each sports season, parent respondents travel more than 1,000 miles to their kids away games and tournaments and spend more than $1,400.
The numbers behind the trending mentality reveal just how much parents are affected and why they do it:
- Sports, Above All: 93 percent of parents surveyed have delayed or skipped buying something for themselves to pay for their childs sports travel. If this sounds familiar, make sure to create a preseason budget, including travel costs, so you dont have to sacrifice other purchases.
- Leisure Out, Sports In: 92 percent are willing to forego a number of activities to facilitate their childrens sports travel such as: family vacations (36 percent), social functions and family gatherings (45 percent) or another childs event (27 percent). For these folks, Embassy Suites has good news, as no matter a trips purpose, staying with the brand will always make families feel like theyre in the midst of a fun-filled weekend escape.
- Save those Vacation Days: 64 percent of survey respondents confirm that they have taken time off of work in order to accommodate their childs sports team travel schedule. Work with your family to create a plan-traveling for sports doesnt have to replace a family vacation. 95 percent of those surveyed have used an out-of-town game as a reason to extend their trip into a family getaway.
- So, Whats the Motivation?: Parents cited several reasons why they trade in their weekends for sports-filled travel. 68 percent do it to show their children they love and support them, while others said it keeps them motivated (60 percent), fosters family bonding (55 percent), gives the kids a chance to live out a dream parents could not (30 percent) and helps children get a scholarship (28 percent).
*Methodology:
The Embassy Suites Fall Sports Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com) among 400 parents of kids traveling overnight at least once per season for fall sports, between September 2nd and September 9th, 2014, using an email invitation and an online survey. Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. For the interviews conducted in this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 4.9 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.
