ABSTRACT
Our world is constantly changing, economic power centres are shifting, old markets are giving way to new, and there are emergent countries offering both new business opportunities and new sources of competition – all changes which have important consequences for tourism and leisure advertising. The world is rapidly shrinking as businesses become internationalized and technology goes global and, hand-in-hand with globalization as a key shaper of today’s advertising, are massive sociodemographic changes. Far from the start of this millennium heralding an age of leisure, as many commentators once suggested, today’s consumers now lead more harried, fragmented and less predictable lives than ever before. With the growth in dual-income households in many post-industrial countries, both women and men have less discretionary time and the result has been a massive increase in time control and a demand for flexible services. In addition, Western markets are becoming more middle aged, middle class and discriminating, and many societies are increasingly diverse and multicultural, creating new challenges for tourism and leisure marketers. Many countries have seen a liberalization of sexual mores (Case study 5.1) and the opportunities for women are rising both in the ageing West and in the youthful East, where many of the most significant changes are occurring. In addition, the world is witnessing the emergence of marketing opportunities in the transitional economies of central and Eastern Europe, southern America and Asia, as seen in Table 5.1.
