Introduction

Tourism is big business, especially for the increasing numbers of baby boomers and older adults who are becoming increasingly targeted by marketers and travel companies as a growing market. This is because many baby boomers are healthier, financially well off, better educated and have a greater desire for novelty, escape and authentic experiences than previous cohorts of retirees. The baby boomer generation in particular is a prime example of a niche market firmly embracing the notion that the next wave of successful tourism businesses will be those geared towards the experience economy. In recent years, ‘boomers’ have demonstrated that they are willing participants in new and adventurous forms of leisure and are opting for more physically challenging and authentic learning experiences more than ever before. In seeking to bring greater attention to this issue, this chapter seeks to first detail the changing leisure interests of today’s older tourists before concluding with a discussion of key marketing considerations for this growing older cohort group.

The provision of tourism and leisure services is now increasingly becoming the domain of commercial operations. Part of the reason for this sectoral change has been linked to matters relating to the increased privatisation of public leisure and recreation services. More importantly, this has been due to the advent of greater entrepreneurial activity in the commercial recreation and tourism sectors. This is because there has been an industry wide acknowledgement of a significant and global market change that has occurred over the last decade, the growth of the older adult travel market.

As a result, this shift in the consumer mindset has forced tourism operators in particular to rethink about how they will provide services to a different type and age of their clientele. For instance, older travellers have recently shown a desire for more flexible and individualised travel packages that has necessitated a significant movement away from the provision of traditional and somewhat generic ones.