Traveler of Time
Tourism of the third age. Golden years of travel of 50+
By Mariana Navarro
The tourism of the third age is a type of tourism that is directed to people older than 60 years, in which people can travel individually or in groups and can request services and specialized facilities geared to their needs.
In a society such as ours, which is increasingly oriented towards leisure, older people represent an attractive market segment for the tourism industry, highlighting its enormous growth potential. In the most developed countries on the planet, life expectancy is, in recent decades, at an average of 75 years.
Demystifying
Previously reaching seniors was equivalent to staying at home and looking for household chores to spend time, but within the framework of the 21st century this perspective gradually changed.
Today, many people who reach old age have the time and energy to plan trips to places that previously were impossible to know, either to take care of their family or overload of occupations, which prevented them from making those long-awaited trips .
Today the elderly are the new explorers of the world.
Data
Within the tourism sector of the third age, the market destined to this generational group grows in importance at the national level. Since 2012 in Mexico, we began to turn our attention to this tourism sector, combining the positive projections and statistics of this population sector.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), 10 of every 100 Mexicans today are older adults, which shows the opportunity of this tourist niche, which becomes more important when one thinks that according to projections by the National Population Council, by 2030, that percentage will increase to 14.8%, that is, there will be about 20.4 million Mexicans in the third age . By 2050, it is expected that the largest percentage of the population in Mexico will be that of adults over 60, a phenomenon unprecedented in the country.
By the way, currently people over 60 years old cover 9.6% of the population in Mexico (with 12.2 million), and in 2050 they will reach 24.7% of the Mexican population.
Travel times
The elderly are increasingly numerous and show great interest in the new opportunities offered by the tourism industry. This group of young and open spirit, accompanied by a stable economic level, represents an attractive market segment for the travel industry. The hotels, tour operators, real estate agents and other agents involved recognize the most loyal customers in the elderly, as long as optimal levels of satisfaction and offers suited to their needs are maintained.
Distinctive G
In 2012, the G badge emerged in our country, a recognition granted to companies in the industry that offer attractiveness for seniors with high quality standards. This started the gerontological tourism and that associations were created where people of 50 years or more will find not only trips, but also quality in the service and a healthy and adventurous way of life.
Gerontological Tourism or 50+ times of “AMAR”
Currently there are AC as Grupo AMAR (Mexican Association of Retirement Assistance AC) that specialize nationally and internationally in meeting the expectations of a healthy lifestyle, suitable for people who are in 50+ and above.
They are committed to a purposeful and productive leisure that, together with the reconstruction of networks of social relationships, allow conceptualizing the elderly in positive and active terms. Thus, the importance of this proposal is represented by the application of a participation model formulated based on a holistic perspective, which integrates sociocultural, cognitive, affective and practical aspects -especially adapted for the elderly-, taking into account their special conditions and limitations, interests and capacities, as well as identifying their real possibilities of action and participation in the tourism field.
For Javier Govi, entrepreneur and pioneer of the retirement industry in Mexico and current President of Grupo AMAR, “it is a fact that the new generation of 50 and over are opening more spaces, and older adults come with a chip where they can They rediscover themselves as capable and independent people, where they concentrate on being even better people as grandparents, after activities that as dads they did “.
According to this expert in gerontological tourism, “The tourism movement of the elderly is accompanied by tourism with ecological issues, (not only sun and beach), but also religious and cultural tourism, accepted in the tourist sector of 50 and plus”.
For Javier Govi, the message he wishes to give in the collective memory to the elderly ” is that they must remain and believe that there are groups that offer better alternatives to an aging process, with an optimal quality of life, as long as possible and not believe that it is the end of the road . “
Concluding
The gerontological tourism or the elderly, should make proud those who have 50 or more, because being a traveler goes beyond the simple old, be a traveler of the elderly, it is a time of # remove the stereotypes and begin to travel, on this journey that is life itself.
Source: lavozdejalisco
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