The key to ensuring the travel of "silver-haired people" is to manage services for the elderly. This requires that tourism enterprises should strictly implement the "travel agency elderly tourism service specifications", so that the management service tends to be more humane and rational
Winter is coming, and many elderly people in the north go to the warm south and become the main force of travel. Looking at the tourism market in recent years, elderly tourists are also the main force of off-peak travel. With the continuous expansion of China's elderly population, the rising "silver economy" shows the strong consumption demand and strong consumption power of the silver-haired group, and the elderly tourism market shows huge growth space. How to develop tourism products more suitable for the elderly, create a more friendly tourism consumption environment, and let the "silver-haired people" leverage a larger tourism market is worth pondering in the industry.
Relevant reports show that by the end of 2022, there were 280.04 million elderly people aged 60 and above in the country, accounting for 19 percent of the total population8%。The increase in the proportion of the elderly population has given birth to the boom of the elderly tourism market. According to the survey of the National Committee on Aging, at present, the number of elderly tourists in China has accounted for more than 20% of the total number of tourists in the country. A survey report on the lifestyle and consumption behavior of the elderly in urban China shows that 164% of the elderly are "tourism control". According to the relevant survey report released by the China Consumers Association, the elderly are willing to spend 15% of their annual income to travel.
However, it must be faced that there are certain safety risks associated with organizing travel for elderly tourists. The average travel company does not have the conditions to ensure the safe travel of the elderly. "Silver-haired people" often encounter certain obstacles when signing up for group travel. This obviously affected the enthusiasm of the "silver-haired people" to travel.
In view of the "silver-haired" travel, the tourism department issued the "travel agency elderly tourism service specifications", starting from the six elements of "food, housing, travel, travel, shopping and entertainment", combined with the characteristics of the elderly themselves, formulated a number of regulations, to the "silver-haired" travel on an "insurance", so that the rights and interests of elderly tourists can be better protected, but also to those who operate the "silver-haired" business tourism enterprises on a "tight spell". In particular, in view of the itinerary design, insurance, and complaint resolution that elderly tourists are concerned about, the "Travel Agency Elderly Tourism Service Specification" has specific provisions, which further regulates the elderly tourism market.
It can be seen that the key to ensuring the travel of "silver-haired people" is to manage services for the elderly. This requires that tourism enterprises should strictly implement the "travel agency elderly tourism service specifications", so that the management services tend to be more humane and rational, so as to not only meet the tourism characteristics of the elderly, but also effectively protect the rights and interests of the elderly. At the same time, the operation should be standardized, the division of labor should be clarified, the procedures should be refined, and the risk of low-cost groups such as forced shopping and consumption should be eliminated. In addition, tourism companies should also cooperate with insurance companies to provide insurance services to more elderly tourists.
Only when the market becomes more and more standardized and the quality of service is greatly improved, will a strong driving force to promote the prosperity of the market and promote the formation of a mature, healthy and stable elderly tourism market. (Author: Wang Changlian;Editor: Song Yuqiu).