Recent research by UK based Saga Holidays, who serve the needs of travellers aged 50+, surveyed 1,000 people across the UK aged 45 to 65+ to better understand how digitally savvy they were when researching and booking their holidays.
Their results surprised many – baby boomers appear to be strong followers in the digital world.
Unfortunately they did not ask gender related questions about who is researching and making decisions to compare with USA based Marybeth Bond the Gutsy Traveller who follows the trends and offers some Statistics about Women Travellers. However of the 10 most inspirational blogs for senior travelers in the survey, Journeywoman.com registers at no 5.
Here is some more of their Survey Results:
When it came to the sources that senior travellers used to research their holiday destination and plan holiday activities, online research was preferred, with review sites such as Trip Advisor topping the charts (68%).
- The majority of people surveyed (34%) preferred to book holidays online directly through a holiday provider site. Online comparison sites were popular among the 45 – 54 age demographic (17%), but were not highly regarded in the 65+ category (9%). Women of 65+ came out with a majority when it came to booking via price comparison sites (75%)
Most were comfortable with online transactions. More than half of 45-65 year olds said they would be comfortable buying online. The main reason signalled for those who did not feel comfortable making payments online was the risk of fraud.- Six out of ten over 50s couldn’t live without online banking, according to a survey done by Saga earlier this year.
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Seattle Media Maven says we are overlooking the Baby Boomer Market Interestingly, older travellers generally owned at least three tech devices (65%). Tablets, smartphones and laptops were the most popular.
- However, travel reward points were mostly deemed as unimportant, particularly amongst those aged 65 and over (49%).
Even though today’s digital environment is perceived as the playground of the young, these results demonstrate that the real revenue is coming from people aged 50+ who have the time, the disposable income and are far savvier about the internet than they are given credit for.
Saga’s research also highlights that the number of over 50s in employment has grown remarkably in the past 20 years. In fact by the end of 2014 over 50s represented the second largest proportion of total people in employment in the UK.
Too often the Baby Boomer generation is ignored in advertising, despite them having disposable income and time to travel. This article from Seattle Media Maven puts it well.
