IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v54y2016icp13-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Baby boomers turning grey: European profiles

Author

Listed:
  • Borges Tiago, Maria Teresa Pinheiro Melo
  • Couto, João Pedro de Almeida
  • Tiago, Flávio Gomes Borges
  • Dias Faria, Sandra Micaela Costa

Abstract

Globally, the senior or “grey” tourism segment is of increasing importance, reflecting a richer aging population with good health and a desire to travel. Though this niche is traditionally described as homogeneous, grey tourism comprises different subgroups. Identifying the profiles, preferences, and behaviors of these subgroups has become an important task for organizations competing to satisfy tourist demands. This study classifies the factors that most influence mature travelers' decisions. Using a database of 3458 respondents from 35 European countries, four new grey tourism market subgroups were identified. These were named “explorers”, “livewires”, “vacationers”, and “homebodies”, to reflect different preferences and behaviors. The implications for destination marketing and management are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Borges Tiago, Maria Teresa Pinheiro Melo & Couto, João Pedro de Almeida & Tiago, Flávio Gomes Borges & Dias Faria, Sandra Micaela Costa, 2016. "Baby boomers turning grey: European profiles," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 13-22.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:13-22
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2015.10.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517715300364
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.10.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cécile Maunier & Christèle Camelis, 2013. "Toward an identification of elements contributing to satisfaction with the tourism experience," Post-Print hal-01243421, HAL.
    2. Darren M. Scott & Kenneth Bruce Newbold & Jamie E.L. Spinney & Ruben Mercado & Antonio Páez & Pavlos S. Kanaroglou, 2009. "New Insights into Senior Travel Behavior: The Canadian Experience," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 140-168, March.
    3. Bornhorst, Tom & Brent Ritchie, J.R. & Sheehan, Lorn, 2010. "Determinants of tourism success for DMOs & destinations: An empirical examination of stakeholders' perspectives," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 572-589.
    4. Mokhtarian, Patricia L. & Chen, Cynthia, 2004. "TTB or not TTB, that is the question: a review and analysis of the empirical literature on travel time (and money) budgets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 38(9-10), pages 643-675.
    5. Wang, Kuo-Ching & Ma, Ai-Ping & Hsu, Mei-Ting & Jao, Po-Chen & Lin, Ching-Wen, 2013. "Seniors' perceptions of service features on outbound group package tours," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1021-1027.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Isabell Handler, 2022. "Can Senior Travelers Save Japanese Hot Springs? A Psychographic Segmentation of Visitors and Their Intention to Visit Onsen Establishments during COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Halpern, Nigel & Mwesiumo, Deodat & Budd, Thomas & Suau-Sanchez, Pere & Bråthen, Svein, 2021. "Segmentation of passenger preferences for using digital technologies at airports in Norway," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    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. Fragidis, Garyfallos & Kotzaivazoglou, Iordanis, 2022. "Goal modelling for strategic dependency analysis in destination management," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 8(2), pages 3-15.
    2. Caroline Bayart & Patrick Bonnel, 2015. "How to Combine Survey Media (Web, Telephone, Face-to-Face): Lyon and Rhône-alps Case Study," Post-Print halshs-01663683, HAL.
    3. Su, Rongxiang & Xiao, Jingyi & McBride, Elizabeth C. & Goulias, Konstadinos G., 2021. "Understanding senior's daily mobility patterns in California using human mobility motifs," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Holz-Rau, Christian & Scheiner, Joachim, 2011. "Safety and travel time in cost-benefit analysis: A sensitivity analysis for North Rhine-Westphalia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 336-346, March.
    5. Tsaur, Sheng-Hshiung & Teng, Hsiu-Yu, 2017. "Exploring tour guiding styles: The perspective of tour leader roles," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 438-448.
    6. Mohíno, Inmaculada & Ureña, José M. & Solís, Eloy, 2016. "Transport infrastructure and territorial cohesion in rural metro-adjacent regions: A multimodal accessibility approach. The case of Castilla-La Mancha in the context of Madrid (Spain)," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 115-133.
    7. Khalid Hafeez & Pantea Foroudi & Keith Dinnie & Bang Nguyen & Sanjai K Parahoo, 2016. "The role of place branding and image in the development of sectoral clusters: The case of Dubai," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(4), pages 383-402, July.
    8. Mariani, Marcello M. & Giorgio, Luisa, 2017. "The “Pink Night” festival revisited: Meta-events and the role of destination partnerships in staging event tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 89-109.
    9. Miotti, Marco & Needell, Zachary A. & Jain, Rishee K., 2023. "The impact of urban form on daily mobility demand and energy use: Evidence from the United States," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    10. Simabur, Lisda Ariani & Sangadji, Suwandi S. & Rahman, Abd. & Koja, Nur Akbar A, 2023. "Exploring the Research Landscape of Marketing Communication in Tourism: A Bibliometric Analysis," OSF Preprints ygq4t, Center for Open Science.
    11. Michael Iacono & David Levinson, 2015. "Cohort Effects and Their Influence on Car Ownership," Working Papers 000138, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    12. Pye, Steve & Daly, Hannah, 2015. "Modelling sustainable urban travel in a whole systems energy model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 97-107.
    13. Sarat Kumar Jena & Deepti Jog, 2017. "Price competition in a tourism supply chain," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(6), pages 1235-1254, September.
    14. Weis, Claude & Axhausen, Kay W., 2009. "Induced travel demand: Evidence from a pseudo panel data based structural equations model," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 8-18.
    15. Marco Diana & Patricia Mokhtarian, 2009. "Grouping travelers on the basis of their different car and transit levels of use," Transportation, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 455-467, July.
    16. Komppula, Raija, 2014. "The role of individual entrepreneurs in the development of competitiveness for a rural tourism destination – A case study," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 361-371.
    17. Longden, Thomas, 2016. "The Regularity and Irregularity of Travel: an Analysis of the Consistency of Travel Times Associated with Subsistence, Maintenance and Discretionary Activities," ET: Economic Theory 243150, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    18. Phillips, Paul & Moutinho, Luiz, 2014. "Critical review of strategic planning research in hospitality and tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 96-120.
    19. Spasojević Bojana & Božić Sanja, 2016. "Senior tourists’ preferences in the developing countries – measuring perceptions of Serbian potential senior market," European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Sciendo, vol. 7(2), pages 74-83, July.
    20. Iva Slivar & Tea Golja, 2015. "Boosting Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourist Destinations through Loyalty Programs and Stakeholder Collaboration," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 7(4), pages 122-133.

    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:eee:touman:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:13-22. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    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.