*4.2. Travel Patterns of Seniors*

The first six questions of the survey were related more to the general travel patterns of the seniors (Table 4).

Almost 12% of respondents did not travel since having retired. Most respondents prefer to have only shorter holidays, similar to working periods; only a few of them stated that they stay for longer periods (with 9% staying for 2–3 weeks, and only 2% for 1 month or more). The hypothesis that seniors are willing to spend more time on holiday is therefore not true; their travel patterns are quite similar to active citizens, with only a small portion of seniors spending more time on holiday.

The results show that even though the majority of seniors prefer spending their holidays in their home country, there is a huge number of them (one-quarter of seniors) who still prefer to travel abroad during their holidays. This supports the claim that seniors have important market potential. The regional strategies should focus more on how to reach international senior tourists, and how to attract them to the respective regions. The seniors are open to traveling abroad as well during their retirement; this is more a question of whether service providers can understand their specific needs. I will try to answer these questions in addition to what the specific motivations and needs of senior tourists are.

Most of the seniors (44%) prefer to organize their travel individually. There was one important remark on the role of different pensioner organizations and associations, as well as some social tourism schemes being mentioned by respondents. Pensioner organizations (such as Active Retirement Ireland, pensioners' clubs, and thematic pensioner associations) are key players in organizing group travels for seniors. Some other associations (such as tourism, religion, and associations for the handicapped) are also coordinating the travel of seniors (although they are not specifically focusing on seniors in their offers). The social tourism scheme of the National Public Health Organization of Finland and the SOREA program of Slovakia were also mentioned as a specific way of organizing a holiday. Relatives and ex-coworkers are important travel companions, in addition to being mentioned as organizers of holidays.

Personal experiences (16%), family (15%), and friends (15%) are the most important sources of information for seniors making decisions regarding their travels. The media and social media are not relevant sources of information, although the internet was mentioned in more than 4% of the answers as a source of information. For the category of "other", some specific sources of information were mentioned: the role of pensioner organizations (e.g., Active Retirement Clubs for seniors in Ireland, Universities for Seniors in Poland, and

Church Organizations in Poland and Spain) is crucial, though the suggestions of doctors were also mentioned.

**Table 4.** General travel patterns of the seniors.


To better understand the seniors' decision-making process, it is worth mentioning concrete information sources (mentioned under other sources by seniors): books and dreams from their youth, which can be sources of a decision. This also shows that seniors are sentimental, and mass media does not provide the direction for their travels in most cases (only 2% of respondents mentioned it as a source of information).

Traveling by bus was the most common mode of transport for seniors (35%). Using their cars for shorter distances was also mentioned (22%). Airplane travel is also popular (16%). Only a few of the respondents reported using more sustainable modes of transport (such as a bicycle or a boat). As another mode of transport, a few of them mentioned camping caravans, which is a way of traveling for longer periods and to more rural locations (e.g., in Poland, Spain, and Ireland).

Besides the spouse/partner (42%), friends are the most common travel mates based on the answers received (17%). Seniors usually travel with friends, either in smaller groups (10%), or with specific travel groups that focus on seniors (1%). It is important to know the people who one travels with, and therefore the third largest group of travel companions were found to be relatives: their own children, grandchildren, or other relatives (more than 9%).

Around 1400 answers relating to the season seniors are willing to travel in were also provided (Table 5).


**Table 5.** Seasons of senior tourism.

The results show that seniors from remote regions prefer to travel in the summer as well, but traveling in the spring or fall is also an acceptable period for this age group. The results show that winter is the least preferred season for holidays, due mostly to the security aspect connected with the specific weather conditions.
