IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v9y2021i4p148-d653477.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Are the Needs of Senior Tourists? Evidence from Remote Regions of Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Joanna Zielińska-Szczepkowska

    (Department of Economic Policy, Institute of Economics and Finance, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Oczapowskiego 4, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland)

Abstract

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in Europe, with growth mostly centered in major cities and urban locations. Nevertheless, remote destinations can also offer tranquility and accessibility, as well as both unexploited and unknown development potential for active senior travelers. The purpose of this paper is to analyze, on the basis of information gathered from 1705 questionnaires, senior touristic behavior, including motivations and decision-making issues for senior travelers in 11 remote regions of nine European countries (Finland, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain, Ireland, and Greece). A mixed-methods approach was used to fulfill the research objectives. Both interviews and the survey method were applied to generate data from senior tourists. The present study will focus on the key factors explaining senior tourists’ motivations and barriers to travel. The results of surveys conducted within the TOURAGE project indicate the significant potential of remote regions in the development of senior tourism. For senior respondents, a very important reason for going on holiday is the possibility of enjoying rest and silence. Safety, nature, historical sites, quality of services, and easy transportation connections are the top five attraction factors for seniors when choosing a destination. At the same time, according to the interviews, among the important problems negatively influencing the size of the senior tourism market in remote regions are: difficulties in reaching seniors with tourist offers, a lack of promotion of local tourist products aimed at seniors, and finally a lack of financial resources for the implementation of local projects supporting the development of senior tourism.

Suggested Citation

  • Joanna Zielińska-Szczepkowska, 2021. "What Are the Needs of Senior Tourists? Evidence from Remote Regions of Europe," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-22, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:9:y:2021:i:4:p:148-:d:653477
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/9/4/148/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/9/4/148/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roberto Patuelli & Peter Nijkamp, 2016. "Travel motivations of seniors," Tourism Economics, , vol. 22(4), pages 847-862, August.
    2. Lars-Johan Lindqvist & Peter Björk, 2000. "Perceived Safety as an Important Quality Dimension among Senior Tourists," Tourism Economics, , vol. 6(2), pages 151-158, June.
    3. Delphine Le Serre, 2008. "Who is the senior consumer ?," Post-Print halshs-00260182, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yufei Lin & Yingxia Pu & Xinyi Zhao & Guangqing Chi & Cui Ye, 2023. "The Spatiotemporal Elasticity of Age Structure in China’s Interprovincial Migration System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Daniels, Margaret J. & Harmon, Laurlyn K. & Brayley, Russell E. & Vese, Rodney & Park, Minkyung, 2019. "Honor flight: Recognition of preeminent-mature tourists," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 95-107.
    3. Sien Leong Liew & Siti Rahayu Hussin & Nawal Hanim Abdullah, 2021. "Attributes of Senior-Friendly Tourism Destinations for Current and Future Senior Tourists: An Importance-Performance Analysis Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440219, March.
    4. S. V. Ilkevich, 2018. "Senior Tourism Persp Ectives In The Context Of The Pension Reform In Russia," Strategic decisions and risk management, Real Economy Publishing House, issue 4.
    5. Sigitas Urbonavicius & Tomas Palaima & Indre Radaviciene & Joseph Cherian, 2017. "Push and Pull Factors of Senior Travelers: The Lingering Influence of Past Restrictions," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 29(1), pages 93-108.
    6. Puwei Zhang & Li Wu & Rui Li, 2023. "Development Drivers of Rural Summer Health Tourism for the Urban Elderly: A Demand- and Supply-Based Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-27, July.
    7. Jie Yin & Yahua Bi, 2020. "Benign or disordered development? Assessment and simulation of security of highly aggregated tourist crowds in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:9:y:2021:i:4:p:148-:d:653477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.