Chao News Client Editor Xu Zhiyu.
Winter is coming, and many elderly people in the north go to the warm south and become the main force of travel. In fact, looking at this year's tourism market, elderly tourists are also the main force of off-peak travel. These elderly tourists go out of their homes and are active in major scenic spots, enjoying a leisurely and comfortable life in their old age during the trip.
In recent years, the scale of China's elderly population has continued to expand, and the rising "silver economy" shows the consumption demand and consumption capacity of the silver family, and the elderly tourism industry has also shown huge growth space. How to develop tourism products more suitable for elderly tourists, create a more friendly tourism consumption environment, and how to make the "silver-haired people" leverage a larger tourism market have become topics worth considering.
Source: Visual China.
"Silver-haired people" have become an active group in the tourism market.
With time and energy, the lives of the elderly are becoming more and more colorful these days. In summer, take a special tourist train to the mountains to escape the heat and enjoy the coolness;In winter, go to the southern islands to feel the warm sunshine ......Going to different places in different seasons to enjoy the beautiful scenery, the "silver-haired people" have become an extremely active tourist group. According to the China Tourism Academy**, as of the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan", there will be more than 100 million young and healthy elderly people with a high travel rate and more tourism consumption in China, and the tourism income of the elderly is expected to exceed one trillion yuan.
According to the "2023 Travel Behavior Insights of Silver-haired People" released by Ctrip, since the beginning of this year, as of October 15, the number of people over 55 years old has nearly tripled year-on-year. Among them, people aged 55 to 60 are the main consumer groups, and the number of travelers accounts for the highest proportion, reaching 6 percent;People between the ages of 61 and 65 account for more than 2 percent.
In autumn and winter, middle-aged and elderly people account for a larger proportion of the people who travel at staggered peaks. Elderly tourists can often be seen in major scenic spots. Some of them like to see famous mountains and rivers and cultural monuments in various places through more worry-free group tours, and some prefer health care, medical treatment, vacation and other tourism products, to soak in hot springs, experience forest recuperation, and feel the harmony and tranquility of nature.
At present, the scale of China's health care industry is growing rapidly, which is conducive to the health preservation of the elderly and the prevention and treatment of geriatric diseases. In provinces rich in hot spring resources, a number of hot spring sanatoriums, hot spring resorts, hot spring theme hotels, and hot spring pension communities have emerged. Recently, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Health Commission announced the list of "Typical Cases of Elderly Tourism" in 2023, including Tianjin Kangning Jinyuan Characteristic Health Tourism Service, Panjin Baobaohua ** Hospital Exploration Hot Spring Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Tourism and other tourism products involving health and wellness vacations.
According to the "China Elderly Residence and Health Care Development Report" recently released by the China Tourism Academy, under the background of population aging, the new generation of elderly people show better health conditions, more abundant leisure time, newer consumption concepts, more frequent travel willingness and stronger consumption power, the elderly tourism market is gradually regarded as one of the most important tourism markets, and elderly tourism has become an important growth engine for the tourism industry.
Source: Visual China.
Older people travel in a more fashionable and diverse way.
The climate here is warm and suitable, fruits and seafood are also cheap, and it is so comfortable to blow the sea breeze and watch the sea view in Silver Beach. When the north has entered the snowy winter, Ms. Zhou, who is on vacation with her family in Beihai, Guangzhou, is leisurely, cooking food in her "home" and preparing to take a boat to Weizhou Island for a while.
For seniors like Ms. Zhou, long-term travel has become a way of life. Whether it is to the countryside for vacation, immerse yourself in the long-lost pastoral life, or go to the southern seaside to feel the nourishment of the warm climate, the "migratory bird" sojourn for one to several months, winter and summer has become a new, comfortable and healthy way of vacation.
From the perspective of travel time, the travel time of elderly tourists is more flexible and diverse, and the travel time structure presents the characteristics of 'high at both ends and low in the middle', and the proportion of one-day tours and long-term sojourns is higher, and the common support of the tourism service system and the community service system is more needed. Huang Huang, an associate researcher at the China Tourism Research Institute, analyzed.
Zhang Jinshan, a researcher at the Institute of Tourism Planning and Development of the School of Tourism of Beijing Union University, pointed out that in recent years, the further development of the integration of medical care and elderly care will help stimulate more elderly people to start a sojourn and health care life, and promote the construction of a higher quality sojourn and health care product system in areas suitable for sojourn and health care.
Nowadays, the way seniors travel has changed, and they tend to travel in a more modern and varied way. Many elderly people are more willing to integrate into the life of the destination, understand the local history and culture, and many young elderly people are also willing to participate in light sports projects such as hiking, cycling, camping, and mountaineering at the destination, and like to participate in activities such as musical instrument performances and intangible cultural heritage experiences.
Huang Huang believes that elderly tourists pay more attention to the landscape value and cultural connotation of tourism products, and also pay more attention to the health and research functions of tourism. Elderly tourists have richer life experience, pay more attention to emotional interaction with the destination community, and have a soft spot for historical and nostalgic tourism products.
Source: Visual China.
Create an age-friendly tourism market environment.
The growing travel demand of the elderly puts forward higher requirements for the tourism market. A number of experts pointed out that the current tourism products on the market do not pay enough attention to the physical and mental characteristics of elderly tourists, resulting in the characteristics of elderly tourism products are not prominent, and there is a problem of homogenization;The travel of the elderly group still faces many restrictive factors such as sensitivity, security concerns, digital divide, unbalanced market structure, and uncoordinated industrial structure.
Huang Huang believes that there is a problem of mismatch between supply and demand in the elderly tourism industry, and the needs of the elderly have not been fully met. Judging from the existing data, the low consumption of elderly tourists is rooted in the fact that the tourism industry system at this stage is still mainly aimed at young and middle-aged tourists, and there are fewer tourism elements and tourism products that meet the needs of the elderly. All localities, departments and tourism enterprises should strive to create better conditions, provide better products and services, and continuously enhance the sense of gain, happiness and security of the "silver-haired people".
In the face of the strong travel demand of the elderly, many places across the country are also continuing to optimize the facilities for the elderly, increase the transformation of tourism facilities, create a barrier-free tourism environment for the elderly in the whole process, and improve the tourism experience of tourists. For example, Mangshan, Hunan Province has built a barrier-free mountain-type scenic spot, and tourists can reach the top of the mountain through scenic cableways, barrier-free plank roads, elevators, automatic ladders, vertical hoists and other facilitiesChongqing Longqing District has improved barrier-free passages, elevators, escalators and other facilities in various scenic spots, and installed handrails for 1,000 toilet squatting places.
At present, more and more elderly people are joining the ranks of tourism, and how to meet the needs of these new tourist groups is very important.
This article is synthesized from Guangming**, People's Daily Online).