Targeting the Mature Traveler

Developing Strategies for an Emerging Market

Jacqueline Jeynes

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781952538476
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Industria dell'ospitalità e del turismo
• Index: Business

This book provides a profile of the mature travel market based on recent research by review sites, tour operators and agents, and national press.

It identifies recent trends with potential growth in destinations, types of holiday, the criteria holidaymakers use when planning a holiday, and how the final choice is made.

Customer data and global demographic profiles leads to a range of strategic marketing options for those in tourism and travel sectors, and travel trends into 2021 and beyond.

Despite significant changes globally as the coronavirus became a pandemic, the strategic approach identified here still forms a sound basis for taking the industry forward.

Whether you are a student on a travel and tourism course, part of the global travel agency network, a tour operator, or provider of products and services, this book covers the underpinning profile of who the 50+ mature customer is, what they are looking for, and, ultimately, strategies to inform and encourage them to buy in the future.

PART 1

Introduction and Mature Traveler Profiles

Why This Book?

The original intention of writing this book was to highlight how much the travel industry has grown, even in just a decade, and its considerable contribution to the global economy. Based in the UK, the starting point for discussion and analysis is from a British perspective. However, this has been extended to include the United States alongside the UK and to further extend the picture across several other major countries where tourism plays a significant role in their economic development.

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of every country receives some contribution from tourism, whether this is a small percentage or a major part of the economic viability of the nation. The travel and tourism sectors incorporate much more than holiday resorts, tourist attractions, flights, and travel for both inbound and domestic visitors.

There is a clear link with employment, improving the infrastructure, construction and development of accommodation and business premises. In many countries, the rise in numbers of visitors to historical monuments and ancient structures, for instance, has led to the need for increased efforts to preserve and maintain them, to ensure their fabric is not damaged or destroyed by sheer volume of footfall. We regularly hear of the impact “overtourism” has on a region, often leading to exasperation and resentment by the local population to these invading travelers! Paris and Venice immediately come to mind.

As a travel writer for several years, with a focus on the mature traveler, it has been interesting to see how much the volume of tourists has grown in so many destinations. Queues are longer than ever for attractions even when a timed entry ticket is introduced. For example, the recent Tutankhamen exhibition in London required up to an hour of extra waiting past the expected entry time, and that was if you were actually at the front of the queue. Once inside, it was so crowded you had to fight your way through the throng to get close enough to see the exhibits.

Feedback, reviews, and blogs were obviously more negative than you would expect for such a special exhibition. Did this make any difference to the organization or the venue? Clearly not, and, to be fair, there was little they could do at this stage apart from warning visitors with prebooked tickets to be prepared for the wait, and to restrict visit time once inside.

On the positive side, from a marketing perspective, the advertising and publicity was extremely successful, leading to demand exceeding capacity. However, a further negative response was because the stunning Tutankhamen Mask was not actually part of the display, although it featured prominently in the promotion literature.

What Has Led to This Rise in Tourism?

The term “bucket list” of destinations you must see before you die (that is, kick the bucket) has come into everyday usage, giving everyone a chance to dream of and plan a series of trips into the future. Of course, how far into the future depends on your age! The list generally includes the same tourist attractions worldwide—see the list of the most visited attractions later in the book—so perhaps this is a good time to carry out research globally to see how the list differs between age groups and geographic location.

A question for marketing professionals may be, “Where does this fit with the notion of a last-minute, spontaneous choice of where to visit next?” How can you attract a customer to a new, different, less popular destination or experience? Evidence from various sources suggests that most people are not so dedicated to just fulfilling the bucket list before anything else, often because these destinations are more expensive or involve a big trip that needs careful planning to make the most from the visit. Thankfully, there are still plenty of opportunities to find and promote exciting new destinations or activities, such as the Aurora Zone trips to find the Northern Lights in the more remote Finnish Lapland rather than Iceland – image 2 shows the Aurora Borealis (Aurora Zone 2019).

Image 2 The aurora borealis [Photo by Sami Takarautio]

A feature of how much tourism has changed is the number of trips or vacations customers are likely to take each year. In the early part of the 20th century in the UK, there would be just one annual family holiday, which meant saving money for a year to be able to afford it. For all but the very wealthy, this holiday would typically be within the UK, often at a seaside resort. It was the 1970s before package holidays overseas, mainly in Spain, became affordable for the wider population.

As we can see in later discussions, we have an aging population globally, with few countries showing a significantly larger younger group, up to the age of 24 and in the 25 to 50 age group, such as India. The term “baby boomer” is used widely, generally referring to 50+ as being the ones with the most disposable income, the wealthiest pensioners ever. This is not actually helpful when you look more closely at the mature travel sector.

Baby boomers, strictly speaking, are those born toward the end of, and in the immediate years following, World War II in 1945. The birthrate naturally spiked as military personnel returned home, the UK seeing the only time 1 million births were recorded in one year, 1947. The rate of births then went down to a more stable level. The next spike of 1 million births was in 1964—babies of baby boomers, so the next generation. Note that the age of mothers was much lower than it is now, as a woman aged over 25 was considered to be an “old” mother biologically.

This later generation had a different social and economic environment as they grew older and now, in their 50s, may indeed have had better private pensions than those who are now over 70 years old. As a mature market sector, it is, therefore, unhelpful to count them as a single target group.

There has been a staggering (not a term I would normally use but appropriate in this case) rise in the range of media channels and the use of social media in particular in just the last five years. Although this was initially associated with younger age groups and the millennials, where it is the norm and a significant part of their everyday life, the rise in the use of iPads and smartphones in the 65+ age group has opened up so many more opportunities for the travel and tourism sectors to reach new customers.

How Do We Tap into this Growing Mature Market?

This book provides a broad picture of the mature travel market starting with demographic profiles. There are many sources referred to here, with a range of different criteria for collecting and collating the data, so some variation in the results is inevitable, although these sources are generally in agreement on the broad picture.

Of particular interest are the sections on choices for booking a trip, where potential customers go to find out more information about a destination in order to make their final choice, and emerging patterns in what they are looking for from a trip. The varied use of social media, reviews, online searches, and hard copy is considered in some detail, identifying some of the most effective ways to reach the mature traveler.

The country profiles consider data on where travelers go to and come from and the types of trip they currently research and/or book. Current trends identify emerging international travel destinations that have the potential to attract new visitors. Finally, this leads to strategies that those in the travel sector need to consider in order to meet the changing, but growing, demands of individuals and families wishing to travel more in the future without causing too much damage to the earth.

Whether you are a student on a university course covering Travel and Tourism, part of the global travel agency network, a tour operator, or provider of other products and services, this book covers the underpinning profile of what is on offer, who the potential customer is within the mature age group of 50+, what they are looking for, and, ultimately, strategies to inform and encourage them to buy. The reference section at the end provides information on those who have contributed to this study and where more detailed examples of successful strategies and methods of targeting the mature travel market can be followed up.

Definitions to Consider

What Do We Mean When We Refer to the “Mature” Traveler?

There are so many ways to describe a mature trav...