Senior Tourism: Determinants, motivations and behaviour in a globalized and evolving market segment

In an ageing world, a better and deeper understanding of the senior segment is crucial. This thesis focuses in the study of the senior tourism, a topic that has been receiving increasing attention in literature due to its growth potential and the specificities that seniors can present in their way of consuming tourism and leisure travelling. The first few years of the 21st millennium have brought extraordinary change and transformation in destination planning and management. It is obvious that the increasing importance of the tourism industry needs an improvement in knowledge for this important segment so as to be able to tailor offerings to senior cohort groups.

The overall aim of this study is to understand how seniors want to travel, and to determine the trends, forces in play and key preferences that may affect the way that seniors will consume tourism in the future.

The tourism industry must be attentive to the senior market because of the rapid increase in this market’s size in an ageing society and the changes in the way they are consuming products and services. Sophistication should be further explored, and opportunities provided to better anticipate, maximize and genuinely understand the needs, wants, concerns, preferences and insights of this heterogeneous segment of the population.