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Kids holiday survey shows swimming is tops

[February 16th 2009]

A new survey by tour operator First Choice reveals that children’s favourite activity on holiday is splashing about in the pool.

The survey showed that 92% of kids are in the pool everyday on holiday, and that 46% spend most of their time on holiday swimming and enjoying water based activities.

No less than 60% of kids surveyed said swimming was their favourite thing to do on holiday, putting it well above sightseeing, playing on the beach and even eating their favourite foods such as ice cream.

In the same survey 42% of adults said that swimming and lying by the pool was their favourite holiday activity. When asked what was the most important consideration to them when booking family holidays, children and parents had a slightly different point of view.

For parents great value for money, good standards of accommodation and the reputation of the holiday company were most important. But no less than 50% of kids said the pool was the most important factor, preferably with flumes, slides and wave machines.

As a result of its research, First Choice has now launched its new Splash Resorts collection featuring the resorts with the best swimming pools. All the resorts have great water features such as flumes, wave machines, bubble pools and lazy rivers.

And one lucky man, First Choice lifestyle development manager Tommy Lynch, has been given possibly one of the best jobs in the world – testing the pools and facilities to ensure they make the grade.

So far Tommy has travelled over 27,000 miles to try out the best pools. His job involves checking the height, speed, water quantity and landing of the flumes as well as all the safety aspects.

Last year Tommy tested flumes at the First Choice's nine holiday villages in the Costa del Sol, Lanzarote, Majorca, Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, Algarve, Dominican Republic and Mexico.

''The pools and slides are such an important part of family holidays so it is vital everything is right,'' he explains. “My favourite pool by far is at the Holiday Village in Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol. It has it all, flumes, slides and even a wave pool!”

Written by: Nick Purdom