Thomas E. Muller

Tourism Product Development for the Senior Market, Based on Travel-Motive Research

Because the number of seniors (aged 60-plus) in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States roughly constitutes upto a third of the adult population in each of these countries—and this proportion is growing—there has been a considerable economic incentive for tourism marketers to sharpen their focus on older people. Many of these seniors have the desire and means to travel for pleasure, discovery and learning. But contrary to current thinking and practice in tourism marketing, this group is far from homogeneous. In this study, interviews of 356 retirees yielded data on their motives for holiday travel, preferences for holiday destination types, favourite mode of travel, and personal values. The aim was to discover how underlying travel motives and values could usefully identify unique senior tourism markets for the purpose of new product development. The results of factor analyses led to the identification of seven travel-motive segments labelled (in order of relative size) Nostalgics, Friendlies...

Targeting the young at heart: seeing senior vacationers the way they see themselves.

Should senior vacationers be segmented according to how old the person feels, in order to develop and position new tourism products that match the senior’s self-perceived age? In this study, 356 people in the 55-plus age group revealed how old they felt, how healthy they felt, and their personal values, travel motives, travel risk perceptions, travel patterns and holiday destination preferences. Upon dividing the seniors into two groups — the young at heart and the not so young at heart — it was discovered that the subjectively younger senior felt in better health, sought fun and enjoyment in life, travelled for physical stimulation and a sense of accomplishment, and had higher expectations of the holiday — and was thereby more prone to disappointment if the holiday turned out not to be satisfying.

Targeting the CANZUS baby boomer explorer and adventurer segments

The world’s 90 million post-war baby boomers set the stage for some very fruitful international marketing efforts in adventure travel and educational or discovery tourism in the 21st century. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States (the CANZUS countries) have post-Second World War baby-boom generations that together form a cohesive and attractive potential market. But will international tourism marketers recognise that, as baby boomers in the CANZUS populations arrive at their peak earnings and savings years and approach retirement, they present a 21st-century challenge for new product development and marketing strategy in international tourism? This paper profiles three key segments of baby boomers in the CANZUS populations that have the highest likelihood of travelling to discover and learn for self-fulfilment in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and America and to experience soft and hard adventure in these countries. Since all four countries possess an abundance of natural and experiential tourism resources, some tourism product development and marketing strategies are proposed as well.

A gap analysis of perceptions of hotel attributes by marketing managers and older people in Australia

Surveys the perceptions of attributes of three‐ to five‐star hotels by marketing managers and by older people aged 60 and over who return to a satisfying hotel. The attributes studied were price, location, facilities, hotel restaurant, room furnishings, front‐desk efficiency and staff attitude. Usable data were analysed for 154 older consumers in Queensland, Australia, and 44 hotel marketing managers in Australia working at three‐ to five‐star hotels. Respondents’ ratings of a set of eight hotel attribute‐level scenarios were subjected to conjoint analysis in order to infer the relative importance of each attribute to both groups. Results show that both seniors and marketing managers considered hotel facilities to be the most important attribute, followed by room furnishings. The managerial implications for hotels and future research opportunities are also discussed.

The Socially Aware Baby Boomer: Gaining a Lifestyle-Based Understanding of the New Wave of Ecotourists

As the Baby Boomers approach retirement, tourism, in general, is expected to increase among members of this generation. This increase in travel is expected to be accompanied by a surge of interest in ecotourism—resulting in a new wave of ecotourists, over the next quarter century. This four-nation analysis of the post-war Baby Boom generation in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States (the CANZUS countries) argues that Baby Boomers should be segmented by their lifestyle characteristics, in order to isolate the best prospects for ecotourism. Data are presented to show that the prime-prospect ecotourist among Baby Boomers is in the Socially Aware lifestyle group, in Australia, and its counterparts in the other CANZUS populations—Autonomous Rebels in Canada, Educated Liberals in New Zealand, and Actualisers in the United States. Additional data on the travel motives and value priorities of Socially Aware Baby Boomers give a fuller picture of this group. Members of the Baby Boom generation are currently experiencing middle age; the psychological implications of this life stage for ecotourism activity are also given. Strategy pointers are offered for the ecotourism manager, given the growing importance of the Socially Aware Baby Boomer as an ecotourist.

Using Consumer Behavior Research to Understand the Baby Boomer Tourist

This article focuses on consumer behavior research to better understand Australian baby boomer tourists, although the principles and methods behind this empirical study are equally applicable to the baby boomer tourism markets in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, all of which experienced a major postwar baby boom. Lifestyle research, using both secondary and primary data, was the principal behavioral research approach enhanced with survey findings on the psychological motivation for vacation travel among baby boomers, as well as their vacation risk perceptions and travel patterns. Three prime-target baby boomer lifestyle segments were identified on the basis of their propensity for pleasure travel, and the three groups were profiled by their travel motivations, risk perceptions, and patterns. Distinct intergroup differences were found, which indicate a need to tailor the development and promotion of new tourism and hospitality products to each segment of boomers. The findings have relevance for marketing to North American baby boomers as well.

A Study of Australian Materialistic Values, Product Involvement and the Self-Image/ Product-Image Congruency Relationships for Fashion Clothing

There is an increasing trend of a strong preference for or bonding to, possessions which is tied to the rise of individualism in our modern consumer society. Individuais increasingly define themselves and others in terms of their possessions and possessions have come to serve as key symbols for personal qualities, attachments and interests. To help understand this attitude of consumers toward their possessions, marketing scientists have utilized the construct of ‘involvement’. In the past decade, considerable theory development and empirical testing has centered on involvement (Mittal 1989). The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between consumers involvement, their degree of materialism and degree of self-image product-image congruency.

Individualist vs. Collectivist Cultures: Shopping for Prestige in Australia

This study compared the shopping patterns of two types of consumers within that Australian population—those conditioned by collectivist societies (Asian-born) and those conditioned by an individualist society (Australian-born). We hypothesised that consumers from collectivist societies are more prone to express their individuality and identity through the material acquisition of prestige goods than consumers from an individualist society. Data from the Roy Morgan Research syndicated survey of consumers were examined for three types of consumer behaviour: stores patronised for clothing purchases, stores used for the purchase of furnishings, and type of car currently owned. The findings indicate that Australian consumers originating from collectivist cultures have a stronger tendency to patronise prestige stores and drive upscale types of cars than Australian consumers who were born in their individualist nation. This pattern of consumer association with more prestigious stores is quite apparent even when income effects are held constant

Region Equity and Wine Purchase Decisions: Does The French Cachet Sell Chardonnay?

American wine consumers reported purchase likelihoods for several fictitious wines based on brief verbal descriptions in an information display table. The information in the table was organized according to either region of origin or wine variety categories. Results indicated that the French Chardonnay had a higher purchase likelihood when the table also included a Texas Chardonnay rather than when it included a California Chardonnay. Moreover, the purchase likelihood of the French Chardonnay was higher when the wines were organized according to region rather than variety categories, whereas the reverse was true for the Texas Chardonnay. The purchase likelihood of the California Chardonnay was unaffected by the organization of the information in the table.