Facilitating elderly tourism by sustainable transportation

Tourism is an important industry worldwide. Transport is an essential factor in starting and promoting tourism. Nevertheless, community sustainability is greatly affected by transportation. Sustainability can be considered from different aspects, including environmental, economic, and social aspects. Sustainable tourism can be achieved by providing public transportation to different groups of society, especially vulnerable groups. The aging population is growing, and their long-distance travel demands are increasing. Aside from having more free time, the elderly also need to travel for a variety of reasons. Transportation systems must meet certain requirements in order to attract people with physical and mental disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to examine what factors facilitate long trips for the elderly, what factors must be taken into account by public transportation systems (airplane, bus, and train), and how we can encourage these groups of people to use public transportation systems on long trips. This study is based on a survey of seniors’ travel demands in Kerman, Iran, performed in 2023. The analysis used random forest, multinomial logistic regression, and structural equation modelling. This study indicates that many seniors would like to make longer-distance trips, but need improved services that meet their needs. However, tourism could attract wealthy seniors if special services are provided. The service quality of buses and trains must be improved to be attractive to the elderly who are not wealthy enough, because of equity issues.