Typology of senior travellers as users of tourism information technology

Abstract

The importance of senior travellers as a travel segment for the tourism industry is continuously increasing as the number of pensioners increases in the Western world. These new senior travellers differ from earlier generations in many ways, one of which has to do with the increasing use of information and communication technologies as part of their information search process. This study examines senior travellers as users of tourism information technology. A qualitative approach was adopted to provide insights into the topic, and nine Finnish seniors were interviewed. The results were analysed using content analysis. The results show that senior travellers comprise a quite heterogeneous market with respect to the use of tourism information technology. However, there is no special marketing or website design that senior travellers really need: a good website will cater to both the needs of younger as well as older consumers. The study also presents a tentative typology of three different types of senior travellers based on their use of online travel services: Adventurous Experimenters, Meticulous Researchers and 2 Fumbling Observers. This typology contributes to our understanding of the heterogeneous use of tourism information technology by senior travellers.

Young-elderly individuals´ use of social media for travel purpose

“…This is in line with previous research that older individuals are quite heterogeneous in their use of information technology for travel purposes (Pesonen et al, 2015b). There also seems to be a clear divide between the informants in how involved they are with social media for travel purposes as we were able to divide them into three groups -disinclined, opportunistic and 2.0 users.…”

“…Thébault et al (2013) found that older consumers prefer online sites that they know. This is also confirmed by Pesonen et al (2015b) who found that half of their older respondents prefer familiar and safe brands when looking for travel-related information online.…”

“…The respondents are likely to be biased towards people with a higher educational degree and a larger household income than the average Finnish 60-75 aged individuals (cf. Pesonen et al 2015b). High income and a higher educational degree have both, generally speaking, been seen to have a positive impact on technology adoption and use.…”

“…However, only little research has been conducted on the influence of the Internet on the older tourist market (Vigolo & Confente, 2014;Pesonen, Komppula & Riihinen, 2015a). According to Pesonen, Komppula & Riihinen (2015b), the senior traveller market is quite heterogeneous with respect to the use of online travel. A growing number of older people in countries such as Finland are Internet users.…”

Segmentación de los Seniors en función de los productos que compran por internet: impacto en la industria turística

“…La literatura se ha centrado principalmente en (ver Tabla I): a) las motivaciones de viaje de los turistas senior (Ward, 2014, Le Serre et al, 2013Cheng y Wu, 2009;Boksberger y Laesser, 2009); b) los factores psicológicos Jang y Wu, 2006); c) las características de la experiencia (Batra, 2009;Hunter-Jones y Blackburn, 2007); d) las necesidades del servicio (Chen et al, 2013;Wang et al,. 2013) y las características sociodemográficas (Pesonen et al, 2015;Peral et al, 2013;Jang y Ham, 2009). Sin embargo, poco se ha investigado sobre la influencia de Internet y el tipo de producto adquirido en el mercado senior (Vigolo y Confente, 2013).…”