Executive summary
Key findings
- With significant growth in the EU’s older adult population expected, tourism must adapt to harness the potential of the longevity economy.
- By 2040, tourism spending by those aged 55+ is projected to nearly double, reaching 5 billion EUR – a 111% increase since 2019.
- Six intertwined categories of silver tourism that encompass most applications of tourism among older adults are identified and analysed in detail, along with their challenges: wellness tourism, accessible and medical tourism, and international retirement migration (IRM), multi-generational, smart tourism.
- Wellness, accessible, and medical tourism should address the diverse needs of older adults, bridging financial gaps and overcoming healthcare and tourism sector divides, without reinforcing ageism.
- International retirement migration (IRM), multi-generational, and smart tourism face challenges related to social integration, balancing family needs, and avoiding an overemphasis on technology at the expense of holistic integration.
- Silver tourism offers a unique opportunity to reduce seasonality, alleviate healthcare demands, and drive economic growth
- Silver tourism combats isolation, fosters well-being, and improves life satisfaction. Environmental impacts, such as resource depletion and habitat degradation, can be mitigated through sustainable practices.
- The EU should develop a roadmap for silver tourism and strengthen current tourism initiatives. The roadmap should focus on priority areas, such as sustainable tourism practices, accessibility, and multi-generational travel, aligning efforts across Member States.
- Enhanced scenario planning and foresight in the EU silver tourism sector are essential to boost resilience and address unexpected crises (e.g., COVID-19, climate change, natural disasters). This can be achieved through the Competence Centre on Foresight and by expanding programs like Crisis Management and Governance in Tourism.
- Cooperation among silver tourism stakeholders and expanded research are crucial to addressing ongoing challenges effectively.
Background
By 2050, about 30% of the European Union’s (EU) population will be over the age of 65 (Eurostat, 2023b). The longevity economy refers to the economic opportunities and challenges that arise from the increasing number of people living longer and healthier (Klimczuk, 2021). This study aims to highlight how the longevity economy affects and will affect the tourism sector in the EU, including its challenges, opportunities and implications. It provides general and specific recommendations pertinent to a specific category of silver tourism. The scope of the study is the EU as a whole, capturing the key insights since 2014.
Silver tourism is a key component of the longevity economy focused on catering to the travel and leisure needs of older adults (Zsarnoczky et al., 2016; Zsarnoczky, 2017b). A conceptual framework of silver tourism was developed based on the literature review and expert interviews. It consists of six intertwined categories analysed in detail: wellness, accessible and medical tourism, international retirement migration (IRM), multi-generational and smart tourism.
The challenges and opportunities of wellness, accessible, and medical tourism
One of the key challenges in silver tourism lays in understanding the diversity of the sector, its participants’ needs, and ageism[1] that prevents older adults from travelling. A growing demand for wellness tourism opportunities can be seen, however, this is often limited to those financially affluent. The increased popularity of medical tourism also brings challenges such as low public healthcare funding, poor cooperation between the healthcare and tourism sectors, and migration of medical professionals. Lastly, a gap between the supply and demand of accessible tourism solutions exists, calling for a universal design approach to personalised tourism services.
IRM, multi-generational travel and smart tourism
IRM is a phenomenon of older adults travelling to more favourable regions. Although they face insecurities due to social exclusion, opportunities exist to better engaging IRM tourists in local, expatriate communities. To add, multi-generational travel is growing as older adults are taking trips with their families. They also face challenges such as lack of relaxation and unaccounted needs of children. One way this can be alleviated is with customised modes of travelling (e.g., cruises, riverside trips). A significant growth of smart tourism[2] was also seen in the last decade. Despite this, too much importance is often given to technology itself rather than its holistic integration. Digitalisation can help unlock the dual transition, developing sustainable digital ecosystems.
Economic potential, social, environmental and industrial implications
A quantitative model was used to estimate the expenditure of silver tourism based on the EU population projections. By 2040, silver tourism expenditure by tourists aged 55 and above will reach 369.5 billion EUR (111% since 2019). This rapid growth suggests that older adults will become an increasingly dominant force in tourism. This also offers a unique opportunity to simultaneously reduce healthcare burdens while driving economic growth. Silver tourism continues to be effective in reducing seasonality by offering stable employment and year-round revenue.
Silver tourism helps older adults combat social isolation, and foster personal and community well-being. It also causes carbon emissions, resource depletion and habitat degradation, which can be overcome by long-term eco-friendly practices. Silver tourism also presents a significant potential for enterprises that may be unlocked by addressing barriers such as digital accessibility and inclusivity.
[1] According to the World Health Organisation, ageism refers to ‘the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or oneself based on age (World Health Organisation, 2021a).
[2] Smart tourism refers to the integration of advanced technologies, such as information and communication technology (ICT), mobile communication, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, to enhance tourism experiences, improve resource management efficiency, and increase destination competitiveness with an emphasis on sustainability (Gretzel et al. 2015).
Policy recommendations
This analysis yields several policy recommendations to promote and enhance silver tourism:
- Increasing cooperation at the EU level between stakeholders in different policy fields and sectors connected to silver tourism by setting up a working group on the project of an EU’s roadmap to silver tourism, and enhancing scenario planning and foresight in the EU silver tourism.
- Raising awareness to target ageism and providing education and specialised training on inclusive tourism.
- Employing inclusive tourism marketing campaigns to better understand the target audience and promote rewarding tourism experiences. Evidence on behavioural characteristics of older adults as tourists (life experiences, family, accessibility needs) and universal design approach should be used.
- Reducing disparities and financial barriers for older adults to participate in tourism by introducing national co-funding programmes for silver tourism activities (e.g., Imserso).
- Enhancing data collection and research (e.g., tourism data granularity beyond age 65, behavioural diversity, medical, multi-generational tourism, etc.).
- Increasing institutional support and funding towards sustainable practices (e.g., supporting the use of EC-developed indicators and projects on sustainable infrastructure).
- Supporting other areas such as the resilience to shocks (e.g., climate change, pandemics).
Recommendations specific to each silver tourism category analysed in the study:
- Wellness tourism should be enhanced by EU-level programmes for active ageing, while MS should consider encouraging wellness tourism services via national healthcare systems.
- IRM can benefit from supporting arriving older adults (connecting families, providing legal and social support) and dedicating EU funds to help mitigate the social and environmental impacts on local communities.
- Multi-generational travel should be furthered by developing guidelines for family-friendly destinations including incentives for family travel.
- Accessible tourism needs continued efforts to develop guidelines for accessibility, including education programmes and increased dissemination of existing funding mechanisms.
- Medical tourism should see an increase of cooperation between medical and tourism service providers, enhance staff training and risk assessments to ensure quality of services.
Smart tourism requires a unified conceptual framework, strengthened operational processes for smart projects, and robust support for smart city initiatives.
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