Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
3
Demography and Societal
Change
Ian Yeoman, Una McMahon-Beattie,
Damian Lord and Luke Parker-Hodds
Introduction
Children and families form the closest and most important emotional bond
in humans. The relationship is what drives humanity and society, and as
such the family is the centre of human activity (Yeoman, 2008). As a conse-
quence, family tourism is one of the most important sectors in the tourism
industry and constitutes 25% of all trips by domestic tourism in the UK
(VisitBritain, 2011). There are many futurists and commentators (Yeoman,
2012) arguing that in an uncertain world the only thing that is certain in
life is birth and death. In between those certainties, social structures with
families are changing. The OECD (2008) identifies higher rates of female
participation in the labour market, higher divorce rates, more single parents,
rising and longer enrolment in education, growing numbers of elderly, higher
numbers of foreign-born population and ethnic diversity as demographic
trends that will change structures in society.
The purpose of this chapter is to identify the core demographic changes
that are occurring in society and identify the implications for tourism,
as summed up in the concluding Figure 3.9. Why? Families are all about
demography, therefore understanding the future of families and the direction
of these trends is extremely important for the family tourism market. The
chapter observes those changes that are occurring in the UK, as those
changes are representative of similar patterns occurring in the advanced
economies of the OECD. The data for this chapter were provided by the
Future Foundation, a London-based consumer think-tank, whose six-times-
a-year survey of 11,000 UK households enables organisations to identify
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