Getting away from it all how much can a holiday help?

PA146/11 Researchers are to study the social and economic benefits of getting away from it all in a knowledge transfer partnership with a national charity that offers holidays and short breaks to disadvantaged families. The two-year project, being led by Dr Scott McCabe in the Division of Marketing at Nottingham University Business School, will examine the impact that supported holidays offered by the Family Holiday Association have on the lives of thousands of families every year. The study, which is the largest social tourism research project ever undertaken in the UK, will also look at the potential knock-on economic effects on the country's tourism industry. More than two million children in the UK live in families who cannot afford a day trip to the seaside, let alone a proper holiday. The Family Holiday Association is a London-based charity that works to help disadvantaged families get that much needed break away from home. The charity, funded from a combination of public fundraising, charitable trusts and corporate donations, estimates it will help around 2,000 families this year. Families are referred to the charity by welfare agencies, such as social workers or health visitors, charitable organisations including Barnardo's and the NSPCC and GPs and schools.