The number of people over 60 will reach approximately 20% of the world’s population by 2050. The new generation over 60 can be grouped into 3 main traveler profiles consisting of wealthy travelers, single travelers, and budget seeking travelers.
The world’s population is experiencing a gradual aging. Currently, the largest population group is between the ages of 30-60 years old. However, it is expected that by 2050, the number of people over 60 will have increased to represent more than 20% of the world’s population. This equates to a figure of 2,000 million people (UNWTO, 2014). This is being caused by an increase in life expectancy, the aging population of current 30-60 year olds, and the stabilisation of the birth rate.
Today, when we think of senior tourism, one of the first concepts that comes to mind is social tourism programs like IMSERSO. However, we can say that this is nothing more than a senior sub segment that often gives an incorrect perception that people over 60-years-old are only looking for hotels with low rates.
The new generation over 60 is made up of traveler profiles with different characteristics and needs. After an exhaustive market study, we concluded that, at present, senior tourists can be classified into three main profiles. The first sub segment is wealthy travelers, the second is single travelers, and the third is budget-seeking travelers.
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The wealthy senior travelers segment is comprised of travelers over 60 years of age with a medium-high purchasing power who are used to traveling and want to maintain an active life. However, this sub segment does not want to be classified as senior tourists. They want to make the same vacations that they have throughout their lives. Proof of this is the disappearance of specialised catalogs for older travelers such as “Young at heart” from the British tour operator Thomson and “Club Elan” from the German tour operator TUI.
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The second sub segment we identify is single-senior tourists looking for new experiences, called mature single travelers. This sub segment consists of tourists 60-70 years old who want to enjoy organised trips to meet other singles that share a passion for travel, culture and fine cuisine. An example of a tour operator specialising in meeting the needs of these customers is the British company ONE TRAVELLER.
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Still, there will always exist older travelers with medium-low purchasing power looking for budget trips. A clear example are the travellers that travel during the low season to take advantage of subsidised programs like IMSERSO.
With the cards on the table, each hotel should thoroughly study the potential attractiveness of each segment and the adequacy of its product to meet customer needs.
At the hotel factory, we have extensive experience in the analysis of the characteristics and patterns of behavior of the three profiles identified in the senior segment.
