Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
non-FLCs were found to stay significantly longer than traditional FLCs in
Ballarat (5.40 compared with 4.52).
Discussion
Since the FLC was first used as the basis for research in 1903, it has undergone
many changes and has been used across numerous research areas. As life ex-
pectancy has increased, living longer has provided more stages for people to
explore. People have increasingly had more time to explore single life before
getting married. This has allowed for the option to delay starting a family
to work longer, save more money and travel first. A longer life expectancy
has also allowed people more time after their children have left home. An
increased life expectancy linked with changes in social views has necessarily
influenced the nature of the FLC model. People could marry more than once.
Just as people approaching the empty nest I stage they may remarry and
find themselves back in full nest I stage.
Not everyone has children; some do not want to, and some are not able
to. Not every family has two parents - single parents are now common.
And there are also
parents who are same-sex couples. Today, there are so
many different types of parents and families that the traditional FLC model
becomes increasingly limited. In fact, it is not uncommon for there to be
vast age differences within couples. The assumption of the traditional FLC
model is that couples are around the same age and go through the stages
together. Significant age gaps are, though, seen in society - made famous by
various celebrity couples such as Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas,
with a 25-year age gap. Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster have a 26-year age
difference. Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn are 35 years apart in age, while
Billy Joel and Katie Lee have a 32-year age gap. Peter Stringfellow and Bella
Wright are 43 years apart in age. These are examples of people who are not
following the traditional FLC model. The vastly younger partner could be
left as a solitary survivor at an early age, leaving them plenty of time to
revisit an earlier stage of the FLC by finding a new partner.
While the deficiencies in the traditional FLC model are axiomatic, the
traditional FLC model is still widely used in tourism and other circles.
However, its limitations in tourism are clearly highlighted in market seg-
mentation discussions. An interesting issue surrounding the traditional FLC
model is that, despite its limitations, it has not been replaced by a modern-
ised model. Various versions have been developed through the decades, but
they have not yet managed to overtake the traditional models. One explana-
tion for this could be the complexity of the modernised FLC models, when
graphically depicted. The simplified modern FLC model (Bojanic, 2011) may
have added appeal for future applications. It contains only seven stages
while still allowing single parents and unmarried couples to be represented.
It condenses all children's ages in a simplified stage of 'full nest' to reduce
