The Senior Citizen Market

We know that everyone is being affected by the tough economic times, but there are still people who travel -- who can take the discretionary time to travel and yes, who even have the money to travel.

We all know that "Boomers" (age 41-60) are the fastest growing market segment. In addition, the Boomers are now aging (eek!) and becoming part of the "Matures" (age 61 and older). So this is a huge pool of people from which to draw. Tapping into even a small percentage of these two groups can be rewarding. Like all marketing, to be successful you must target these segments in a relevant, meaningful manner. The usual: "identifying what these customers want and then giving it to them". Not to be simplistic, but all I'm saying is: don't overlook the "Senior Citizen" market -- just don't call them that!

AARP recently announced a new Travel Center powered by Expedia. It's a custom website including vacation packages, cruises, flights, hotels and rental cards. Members get discounts with most of the providers and extra onboard cruise credits, as well at not having to pay any airline or cruise booking fees.
(See www.expedia-aarp.com)

And here’s something else I found interesting: AARP THE MAGAZINE commissioned a survey of retired married (or living-as-married) couples ages 55 through 75. The survey was originally done to find out if American husbands and wives have the "retired-husband syndrome" which is affecting Japanese wives. This genuine disorder is one in which the retired Japanese husbands start hanging around the house and drive their spouses (literally) crazy. Turns out that the majority of Americans (77 percent) say they really don't mind having their spouses around more. In fact 47% of retired couples say they engage more in TRAVEL activities now than when they were working. Travel was the largest percentage listed. (Other "more time for fun” areas were: eating out 40%, hobbies 38%, Exercise 37% on down the line).

Have a great holiday weekend. Best, Julie Wernick, HSMAInsider