Senior Tourism in Europe: When There Are “No Boundaries”

Tourism has great economic, social, and cultural relevance. Over the past two decades its importance has expanded worldwide, impelling destinations, hospitality and tourism firms, and researchers to seek out new trends and patterns. As previously acknowledged in several studies, the global demographic of aging tourists has led to the growth of senior tourism. This demographic is known for its specific needs and preferences with regard to what tourism offers. Following the work of Tiago et al. (Tour Manag 54:13–22, 2016), our main objective is to analyze the dynamics of the senior market in the European context in order to better quantify and describe it. By applying a clustering process to a database of seniors from 35 countries in the old continent, we identified the sub-groups within this niche market based on their vacation destinations and how they plan their travel. Our results reveal the existence of four distinct sub-segments that need to be considered by Destination Marketing Organizations and hospitality and tourism firms, because there are significant differences with regard to the information sources they use to plan and decide destinations, as well as their preferred features and facilities’ dimensions. One of the sub-groups we identified has not been covered in any previous study, reinforcing the need to continue analyzing this niche market.