Developing Dementia-Friendly Tourism Destinations

Abstract

Dementia is emerging as a global issue. Increases in life expectancy create an older population structure with accompanying health needs but also high lifestyle expectations. For example existing generations have come to expect to be able to participate in leisure and tourism activities in later life, which can be constrained by the onset of dementia. Leading healthy lifestyles and engaging in tourism activities are viewed as fundamental to remaining active and contributing to slowing the progress of dementia. This study is the first to examine the challenges and implications of the growing scale of dementia and the business opportunities this may create for destinations wishing to achieve dementia-friendly status. The paper reports results from an initial scoping study with tourism businesses in a coastal resort in the United Kingdom with such ambitions to assess the nature of the issues that arose from a series of face-to-face interviews.

Dementia friendly initiatives: A state of the science review

“…The financial cost and potential savings of specific DFIs must be quantified to determine economic feasibility of implementation. Information on the fiscal impact of DFIs could enhance the draw and adoption of evidence-based dementia friendly practices on larger scales across settings (Pantzartzis, Price, & Pascale, 2016). Preventing institutionalization through enactment of comprehensive DFIs has potential for cost savings multiplied across communities, similar to proven caregiver support programs (Long et al, 2013).…”

An exploratory study of creating dementia-friendly businesses in the visitor economy: evidence from the UK

“…A synthesis of the extant literature on leisure and tourism (see Genoe and Dupuis, 2014; Page et al., 2015; Innes et al., 2016) demonstrates the therapeutic value of daily outdoor activity for people with dementia and their carers through to holiday-taking. Despite this proposition, subsequent research on the visitor economy (Connell et al., 2017) illustrated that this remains a largely neglected area in dementia research.…”

‘Dementia-friendly communities’ and being dementia friendly in healthcare settings

“…Smith et al [10] investigated perspectives of PWD on rebuilding Christchurch, New Zealand as a dementia-friendly city postearthquake. Page et al [26] identified a new concept, ‘dementia-friendly tourism’, within a destination context and examined supply and demand issues associated with dementia-friendly tourism in the UK. Han et al [27▪▪] synthesized 34 qualitative studies using a meta-ethnography approach to understand the perspectives of PWD on ‘meaningful activities’ – which are believed to help meeting fundamental psychological needs of PWD [28▪].…”