| Abstract [eng] |
SUMMARY The seniors’ market is really the specific one (there is no stable definition of older people in the scientific literature. This market segment has different names: silver market, grey market, mature market. There is no unanimous opinion at what age people become senior. Usually, the seniors’ age is varying from fifty to sixty years). Seniors travel seasonally, elderly people can travel for a longer time than usually, they need more rest and they can afford a little bit more because of the savings. Seniors, who continue their work get higher income, have less expense and there is no need to take care of children. Moreover, all society gets older because of few reasons: a longer lifetime and particular habits of lifetime, a better healthcare, a medicine breakthrough, a different family model and the most important thing probably would be a decreasing birthrate. There are efforts to make senior tourism more popular in Lithuania too. Unfortunately, this market segment has not much of research attention. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the stream of tourists from 2008 decreased in Europe. In Lithuania, this problem appeared in 2009 – 2010. It is predictive that in 2011 markets might recover and due to this tourism organizations in Lithuania need to know how to meet expectations of elderly people and prepare for this. Object of the paper – the development possibilities of the seniors’ tourism market. Object of the research – to find peculiarities of seniors’ tourism market and to define development possibilities of this tourism market segment in Lithuania. For the current object, an empirical research was carried out (a questioning described as a questionnaire and an interview) and 402 respondents from Kaunas and Klaipėda were questioned, 8 workers from tourism organisations and 8 leaders of seniors’ organisations were interviewed, 7 foreign tourists were questioned. Also, 8 tourism organisations websites and publicity were analised. Practical research also confirmed the assumptions: P1: seniors’ tourism is in introduction stage (Product Life Cycle) in Lithuanian tourism market. P3: there is no seasonal in seniors’ tourism market. P4: tourism organisations do not create demand for senior market. P6: Seniors’ travel destination depends on leaders of seniors’ organization decisions. Also, few hypotheses weren’t confirmed: P2: Seniors take priority to sightseeing tours in Lithuania and foreign travel. P5: Before retirement age (50–60 age women, 50–62,5 age men) seniors travel more than retirement age people. A scope of the work – 95 pages, it contains 25 tables and 33 pictures and 9 appendixes. |
