Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and business travel since 1984, with an average growth of 6% per year
(ABTA, 2011; ONS, 2010c).
According to VisitEngland (2011a), 119 million domestic trips were
made in the UK in 2010, generating £20.8 billion. Trips, in particular holiday
trips, despite being down on 2009, remained above pre-recession levels and
it appears that, for now at least, the 'staycation'
is
here to stay. Interest-
ingly, over 70% of trips were for three nights or less, with only around one
in 20 being for longer than eight nights, thus indicating that short breaks
continue to be popular with UK domestic tourists.
In a 2011 survey on the 'staycation' phenomenon, VisitEngland (2011a)
identified two clear types of 'staycation' tourist, the 'switcher' and the
'extra', with 'switchers' taking at least one holiday in England that directly
replaced an overseas holiday and 'extras' taking more domestic holidays than
they previously had done. The main reason for 'switching' is for financial
reasons, although other reasons include the ease of travelling in England and
the desire to go somewhere new in the UK and experiencing less hassle than
would be expected on an overseas holiday. Interestingly, while an increase
in the numbers of people travelling abroad in 2012 was anticipated, this
was not felt likely to be at the expense of a holiday in the UK (VisitEngland,
2011b). What is clear is that the 'staycation' continued in 2011, with two
in 10 people taking a domestic break in England that would otherwise have
been abroad. The report concluded that '18-34 year olds and families in
particular are likely to continue taking more holidays in England, in 2012
and beyond' (VisitEngland, 2011b).
Challenges for the Family Tourism Market
Baby boomers were born between 1945 and 1964, generation X between
1965 and 1980 and generation Y, the dot com generation, were born after
1980 (Cooper
et al
., 2008). Generations X and Y, according to Cooper
et
al
.
(2008), 'represent the future of tourism demand for the next 50 years
[however] research tends to focus on the current active travel genera-
tion - the baby boomers'. What will happen when generation X takes their
place, followed by generation Y, is unclear. Similarities and contrasts in the
consumer behaviour of baby boomers, generation X and generation Y are
summarised in Table 4.1. These technologically oriented generations will
challenge the tourism industry. As mentioned above, as the baby-boom
generation of the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s retires, the European
Union's active population will start to shrink from 2013/2014 (European
Commission, 2010).
Marconi (2001, cited in Glover, 2010) questioned the benefit of using
generations to identify consumption patterns, because it ignores other
aspects shaping individuals' behaviour and preferences, such as attitudes,
values and beliefs. Nonetheless, while there are clearly a wide variety of
