Walt Disney World Resort Florida tops children’s poll

Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort has topped the chart of favourite holiday destinations in a survey of 2,000 children. The resort was the clear favourite with 22.65% of the vote in a YoungPoll survey of five to 15 year olds commissioned by Teletext Holidays. It was followed by Spain, with 8.3%. If combined with Majorca and Menorca,…

Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort has topped the chart of favourite holiday destinations in a survey of 2,000 children.


The resort was the clear favourite with 22.65% of the vote in a YoungPoll survey of five to 15 year olds commissioned by Teletext Holidays.


It was followed by Spain, with 8.3%. If combined with Majorca and Menorca, listed separately in the poll, Spain took 11.35% of the vote. The US, separately from Walt Disney World, received 6%.


The survey also highlighted regions of the UK as popular holiday destinations for the next generation.


Wales came third overall in the chart of dream holiday destinations, with 6.10%, and was closely followed by Cornwall at 5.9% and Devon at 4.05%.


Despite these results, 75.8% of youngsters said they would rather go abroad on holiday, compared with 24.2%, who would prefer to stay in the UK.


In terms of where to stay on holiday, the survey showed a definite swing in favour of more comfortable accommodation, with children favouring hotels and villas rather than tents. In total 42.8% said they would most like to stay in a hotel and 25.3% chose a villa compared to 11%, who picked a campervan or carvan and 7.75% for a tent.


The most popular activities on holiday were swimming in the pool, with 60.1%; playing on the beach, with 56.05%; and going to a theme park, with 44.6%. And when asked what they would like to learn most on holiday, the favourite choice was learning to surf (18.55%) and swimming (12.9%).


First Choice is one of the companies in the trade that has focused on pool activities. It has highlighted properties with good swimming pool facilities in a dedicated Splash Collection brochure because of similar feedback from its own research, said general manager of marketing Stuart Mayo. “Pools came up highly in the list of key things people were looking for in the booking process. Kids love them but at the same time so do lots of adults,” he said. 


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* Florida bookings perform well for summer 2009 (Travel Weekly, January 13, 2009)