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Targeting the young at heart: Seeing senior vacationers the way they see themselves

Griffith University’s School of Marketing and Management in Queensland, Australia

Aron O’Cass

Griffith University’s School of Marketing and Management, a.ocass{at}mailbox.gu.edu.au

Should senior vacationers be segmented according to how old the person feels, in order to develop and position new tourism products that match the senior’s self-perceived age? In this study, 356 people in the 55-plus age group revealed how old they felt, how healthy they felt, and their personal values, travel motives, travel risk perceptions, travel patterns and holiday destination preferences. Upon dividing the seniors into two groups — the young at heart and the not so young at heart — it was discovered that the subjectively younger senior felt in better health, sought fun and enjoyment in life, travelled for physical stimulation and a sense of accomplishment, and had higher expectations of the holiday — and was thereby more prone to disappointment if the holiday turned out not to be satisfying.

Key Words: senior vacationers • segmentation • travel motives • perceived risk • subjective age • cognitive age

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