Seniors travel closer to home and outside peak season

In 2022, 38% of the EU residents aged 15 and over did not participate in tourism, which means that they did not make any trip for personal purposes with at least 1 night spent away from home. Looking at age groups, the highest proportion of people not participating in tourism was among those aged 65 years and over, with over half (55%) not having undertaken any trips. The lowest proportion was observed in the age group 25 to 34, with 29%.

People aged 65 years and over were more inclined to travel in their own country (70%), making longer trips (6.3 nights on average length) and staying more often at non-rented accommodations (53% share of nights). 

Senior tourism seems to contribute to combatting seasonality, with tourists aged 65 and over spending 58% of their tourism nights in the shoulder season (running from March to June, and from September to November), while tourists aged 15 to 64 are more likely to travel in the peak months of July and August. 

Source datasets: tour_dem_tnac, tour_dem_tnage and tour_dem_ttage

Senior tourists cited health reasons as the main reason for not travelling

Among those who did not make tourism trips, people aged 65 years and over had very different reasons not to travel compared with other age groups. For 41% health was one of the main reasons, among the rest of the population (aged 15 to 64 years), only 9% cited health. 

Furthermore, 34% of persons aged 65 years and over gave 'no motivation to travel' as a main reason, while in the 15-64 age group, only 20% showed no interest in tourism.

On the other hand, the most common reason for not travelling for 44% of people aged 15-64 years was 'financial reasons', while only 28% of non-tourists aged 65 years and over cited financial considerations as a reason for not travelling.

Source dataset: tour_dem_npage