Adoption return trips: Family tourism and the social meanings of money

Johanna Gustafsson

doi:10.1177/1468797620977543

Abstract

Through a focus on the planning and making of family adoption return trips, this paper explores how the social meanings of money are entangled with family-making practices and family holidays. Adoption return trips are a global phenomenon, and travel agencies offer tailored adoption return-trip packages marketed as a type of family tourism. The new trend towards conducting adoption return trips as a family when children are still young is growing and has implications for families’ finances because return trips are expensive endeavours. Still, families prioritise these trips, raising them above purely economic values so they stand out as ‘priceless’. The empirical material consists of interviews with 10 Swedish transnational adoptive families. The analyses show that family adoption return trips, despite their original features, are yet one more way of doing family holidaying. Money becomes an important contribution for understanding how family life is being done in and through parental, child and family-holiday ideals, as well as family intimacy.

Highlights

The fact that family-making practices are intertwined with family holidaying has been acknowledged
This was recently manifested in the Swedish television consumer show Plus, which featured a family with transnationally adopted children who demanded compensation from the travel agency
Children mainly talk about money in relation to enjoyment, focusing on shopping and consumption

Summary

Introduction

The social meanings that money is given when planning and conducting an adoption return trip. According to the CEO of a Swedish travel agency, the advice to spend somewhat more money on a return trip than other trips is important. In this way, children can be kept in a good mood, which will make the trip successful (Travel Agency 1). This was recently manifested in the Swedish television consumer show Plus, which featured a family with transnationally adopted children who demanded compensation from the travel agency. They had experienced their adoption return trip to China as unsuccessful because they were dissatisfied with the standard of the hotel and the cancelled visit to the child’s orphanage (SVT, 2015). Understanding the social meanings of money (Zelizer, 2005) when planning and making an adoption return trip may provide insights into how families are ‘done’ in and through the practices of family holidays

Literature review

Concluding discussion

Findings

Data availability statement