"The Senior Tourism" in Russia: the Study of Motivation and Satisfaction Customers

In the study, we carried out a street survey, the objective being to identify the needs of older people in cultural and recreational activities. The results, based on a convenience sample of 195 people aged 65 years and older. The survey involved older people from St. Petersburg and guests of the city. Our study showed that the majority of older people want to lead an active life, to gain additional knowledge and skills to master new technologies, to communicate, to fill life with events, get positive emotions. Surprising: when conducting a sociological survey respondents did not put deterioration in the financial position to retire in the first place among their problems. It was found that older people are easier to adapt to a worse financial situation than to constant psychological stress, loneliness. Loneliness is what worries people today. This is a powerful destabilizing factor affecting health and the psycho-emotional state. In this regard, it is possible to offer a number of promising products that use the technology of tourism and recreation for older people: educational technology, technology museum, creative educational and cultural technology; technology volunteer activities; social entrepreneurship. Development of specialized cultural and educational tours for the consumer segment "the senior tourism" on the basis of the above technologies will help an older person to engage actively in public life and to keep up with modern life, using his full potential and internal reserves. The paper gives examples of the best Russian cultural practices in the segment "the senior tourism". The paper contains proposals for the managerial implications for product development and marketing to the market "senior tourism".