Tourism-Related Needs in the Context of Seniors’ Living and Social Conditions

Abstract

Significant changes are taking place in the structure of tourism participants. Due to the ageing of societies, the tourism sector has to respond to the increasing tourist activity of seniors. The main aim of our research was the recognition of the needs of senior tourists from selected regions of Poland, considering their health and financial situation as well as their physical activity. The study shows how to combine the knowledge of assumptions of active ageing with the actual views of senior tourists on tourism and active leisure. An additional objective was to determine the reasons why seniors gave up tourism and to compare the reasons why seniors from selected regions of Poland and seniors from other European countries did not participate in tourism. Based on Eurostat data, we identify the most common reasons for people not participating in tourism who are over 65 years of age. In 2020, we surveyed seniors. The respondents for the sample were selected as 65 years and older. In order to compare countries due to exclusion and non-participation of seniors in tourism, the results classification was used. To analyse the touristic behaviours of Polish seniors, we used correspondence analysis. As indicated by analysing the reasons for the non-participation of Europeans aged 65 and over in tourism, in most countries, financial and health reasons are ranked first or second in 2016 and 2019. In a survey of Polish seniors, except for the financial reasons responsible for non-participation in tourism, an additional obstacle was the language barrier in foreign tourism. The analysis of physical and tourist activity showed that non-participation in tourism is associated with low physical activity. Women reported that they were satisfied with their financial independence and most often used the opportunity of short-term tourism. The people who are fully or largely involved in organising their trips also willingly change their locations during their next travels.

How Active Are European Seniors—Their Personal Ways to Active Ageing? Is Seniors’ Activity in Line with the Expectations of the Active Ageing Strategy?

“…Several major factors limit the socialisation of seniors. These include post-retirement lifestyle changes, distance from family, mobility, new technologies [16], anxiety, fears, inability to organise/plan leisure time [5,31,38], but also personality and behaviour patterns realised during working life [23,39]. These factors point to yet another aspect to be considered in AA: seniors are a heterogeneous group with diverse views and experiences of ageing [5,40].…”

“…Significant differences between seniors result from fewer obstacles in specifying and detailing their own needs than those in the active age group. They do not have to view themselves through the prism of a parent of growing children, the opinion of the environment in which they live, or the opinion of their co-workers [16,39]. Making decisions can only be related to their needs and dreams as they gain decision-making autonomy.…”

“…Given the heterogeneity of seniors, it is important to point out that AA must include flexible solutions because new seniors or young seniors differ significantly from old seniors, if only in their ability to use technological solutions which are encroaching with increasing intensity on all areas of everyday life [16,39]. The youngest seniors are longer beneficiaries of better health care, are better educated, live in better conditions and are familiar with the concept and opportunities arising from AA [41,42,46].…”

“…Coping with changes in ageing, understanding these changes and introducing appropriate coping strategies make seniors accept changing social roles and economic, health, physical and intellectual conditions. With this approach, they use AA opportunities appropriately [4,6,19,27,28,39,41,46,51]. Determining strategies to cope with various situations by seniors, their regular physical activity improves health and enables an independent lifestyle, which consequently means a higher level of well-being [49,51,52].…”

“…In a study of the impact of artistic activities, which are mainly perceived to be associated with social benefits, negative effects were identified alongside positive ones. Seniors' participation in tourist activities may be limited by the lack of language skills, as they do not speak a second language [39]. The language barrier is also indicated by Eriksson [71] in developing applications and games for seniors.…”