**6. Conclusions and Implications**

Today's seniors are a completely different social group than in previous decades. Older people are much better educated, live in better conditions, and benefit from widely available information. They are interested in active lifestyles, both professionally and socially. The seniors answering the questionnaire were mainly married women with an average age of 68.4 years, secondary education, retired, and with an average annual income. The results show that the majority of seniors prefer spending shorter holidays in their home country. This supports a claim that seniors have an important market potential, especially for domestic tourism. Most of the seniors prefer to organize their travel individually. At the same time, personal experience, family, and friends are the most important sources of information for seniors making decisions regarding their travels. Traveling by bus and by car were the most common modes of transport for seniors. They usually travel with their spouse/partner or friends. The results also show that winter is the last preferred season for this age group, and summer is the most preferred one. Because traveling in the spring and fall is also an acceptable period for seniors, it is good information for regions that would like to extend the tourist season by other months. Financial reasons and health problems are the main barriers to travel for seniors. Regarding travel motivations, research findings showed that enjoying rest and silence was the most important factor for seniors during their holidays. It is worth emphasizing that family and friends are also a major motivational factor for going on holidays. The top five attraction factors for seniors when choosing a destination are: safety, nature, historical sites, quality of services, and easy transportation connections. On the other hand, sports, snow, making handicrafts, dancing, and camping are the top five non-attraction factors. According to the representatives of the tourism industry and local authorities, the reason for the low interest in traveling by seniors may be economic, but also the lack of a special offer addressed only to this particular target group.

The findings of this study have some theoretical implications for senior tourism. Most of the research into senior tourism has focused on the travel motivation factors of the elderly in general. The studies of senior traveler behavior usually concern the specifics of respondents who comes from one country or region. This study fills the gap in this respect because it contains a comprehensive analysis of the senior tourists' motivations and barriers to travel from 11 remote regions of nine European countries. Various classifications and labels for different types of older tourists have not yet provided for this type: the safety vacationer. Considering the results of this study, as well as the current situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic, this type of tourist, especially in the elderly group, is extremely important in the tourism economy nowadays.

The findings of this investigation also provide some important practical implications for planners and marketers. European remote regions must develop certain policy measures and strategies in the public and private sectors. Physical improvement of tourist destinations, the development of easy and convenient accessibility, support for accommodation and attractions, and facility improvement for senior tourists should be taken into consideration if remote regions want to attract more senior tourists. Hopefully, most of the regions which were involved in this research started preparing and implementing special programs dedicated to seniors after the project's completion. That may be good practice for other regions wishing to open up to senior tourism development.

It must be said, however, that, despite efforts and due diligence, this study does not exhaust all aspects of the issue. Therefore, the results that were obtained should be interpreted taking into account the specificity of the assumptions and ranges described. Considering that the conducted study included a sample of only 11 remote regions of nine European countries, this limits the generalizations that can be drawn from its results. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the presentation of the profile of a tourist—a senior coming from peripheral European regions—and their preferences regarding experiences resulting from completed and planned tourist trips, is an important contribution to future research, which can be built upon not only with a larger sample, but also by extending the research to other countries. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel by seniors is of particular interest for future research. Tourism and travel have been reduced to a minimum during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected that domestic tourism will be the first to recover after the end of the lockdowns, which will lead to a major shift in travel flows. Cities with a high population density, dependent on festival and event tourism, have a disadvantage, while destinations in rural areas have an advantage. The study shows that seniors are very keen to travel to small towns and rural areas. Interesting research questions in the context of further development of the senior tourism market are: which destinations and tourist attractions will benefit from the COVID-19 crisis, how will tourism demand for urban and rural tourism change in the recovery phase, and how important is the issue of sanitary safety in the organization of tourist trips among seniors? These and other questions are novel, and I intend to answer them soon.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the TOURAGE project ("TOURAGE—Developing Senior Tourism in Remote Regions"), co-financed by the EU funds: INTERREG IV C Interregional Cooperation Programme 2007–2013, European Regional Development Fund The author of this publication was a scientific expert involved in the implementation of this project.

**Data Availability Statement:** The analyses were made based on the information contained in the TOURAGE project, available at www.eurobalt.org.pl/3-projekt,tourage (accessed on 20 May 2020). The initial data on interviews and the survey method presented in this study, collected separately from tourists, are available on request from the corresponding author.

**Acknowledgments:** The author would like to thank the project "TOURAGE—senior tourism development in European remote regions", funded by the INTERREG IV C Interregional Cooperation Programme for enabling the work required for the article. The author would like to thank the senior tourists, who agreed to participate in the interviews.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
