Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
New models need to
be developed
Same-sex households
Non-family
households
Consumers don't
t
homogeneous groups
New trends
Ageing population
Single-person
households
Consumers have
di
erentiated
consumer patterns in
the successive stages
of the family life cycle
Family life cycle
Developed on
American family
structure
Age is the indicator
of preferences and
activities
Figure 12.10
Conceptual map of future family life cycle
Emerging Futures - The Development of a Cognitive
Map of Families and Tourism
From the analysis of the preceding chapters, the authors have developed
a merged cognitive map of families and tourism, which displays the key
themes that emerged (Figure 12.11). As a consequence of the cognitive
mapping analysis, the contribution of this chapter to the literature of family
tourism lies in nine clusters, discussed under separate headings below.
New family structures as a consequence of demography
Family holidays are no longer exclusively about nuclear families but reflect
changes in family structures and societal values. There is increasing diversity
of family forms in tourism: single-parent families, gay and lesbian families,
blended families and extended families, among other forms. The increasing
life span of people coupled with fewer children in society leads to families
being more vertical, meaning that in the future there will be more multi-
generational travel and 'grandtravel'. It also needs acknowledgement that
through immigration families are increasingly from diverse ethnic back-
grounds. Tourism in the future needs to be reconceptualised as reflecting
that diversity in families.
