The Rise of Adult-Only Leisure in France: Forms, Motivations, and Emerging Questions

Le développement des offres de loisirs « sans enfant » en France: Formes, motivations et questions émergentes

Vincent Lagarde ()
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Vincent Lagarde: EHIC - Espaces Humains et Interactions Culturelles - IR SHS UNILIM - Institut Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société - UNILIM - Université de Limoges

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Abstract: Child-free leisure services are expanding rapidly in France, with an increasing number of tourism providers—restaurants, hotels, campsites, cruises—promoting "adults only" or "no kids" offers. This trend raises sociological and legal questions around its meaning, reach, and implications. Despite its visibility, the phenomenon remains largely unstudied in the French academic context. Drawing on limited international literature and a strategic marketing perspective, this exploratory qualitative study maps the sectors involved, types of services, market segmentation, and the motivations of businesses and clients. A media and web review provides a first overview, with interviews to follow. Although still marginal, the sector is growing fast. Debates around legality—discrimination vs business freedom—are intensifying, prompting potential legislation. Clients include not only childless adults but also parents, citing reasons tied to rest, comfort, and even feminist discourses on mental load or "momcations." Exclusionary practices based on age raise broader concerns about a trend that marginalises families with children. The notion of misopedia may help frame these developments in terms of spatial, temporal, and social segmentation.

Keywords: Adults-only tourism; Child-free leisure; Misopedia; Tourism segmentation; Sociology of holidays; Exclusion of children; Adult only; Misopédie; No kid; Loisirs; Vacances; Sans enfant; Réservé aux adultes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-10-03
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Published in Misopédie : La domination adulte dans les discours contemporains artistiques, scientifiques, politiques et médicaux, EHIC, Faculté des Lettres et sciences humaines, Université de Limoges, Oct 2024, Limoges, France

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05033477

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