Understanding senior tourists' preferences and characteristics based on their overseas travel motivation clusters

Abstract

This study aims to identify the role of seniors’ overseas travel motivations in terms of preferred attraction types and activities, socio-demographic features, and preferred travel-related features. The results show that the motivation of potential senior travelers is a multidimensional construct. A five-cluster solution using extracted senior travel motivational factors demonstrates distinctive characteristics. The clusters show differences on gender, marital status, preferred travel partner, preferred accommodation type, and level of travel information technology acceptance, which are accounted for by preferred attraction types and activities. Consequently, this study indicates that senior travel motivation can be an important segmentation indicator.