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Senior Travel Behavior Before and After Retirement

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Advances in Tourism, Technology and Systems

Abstract

The aging trend of modern society makes senior population and retirees an increasingly attractive tourist market with more available time, less work, and less responsibilities. The purpose of this research is to understand the travel behavior, that is, the habits, preferences, and motivations of seniors, and to study whether, and in what way, retirement influences them. Using the Categorical Principal Components Analysis, it was possible to identify 3 factors related to tourist motivations: To have new experiences; To socialize and do physical exercise activities; To relax and spend time with family and friends. We intent to explore the existence of statistically significant differences between travel motivations and socioeconomic factors. Using non-parametric tests (Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis test), it was concluded that seniors’ motivations depend on sociodemographic variables. The motivation “To have new experiences” differs according to the gender and level of education. The motivation “To socialize and do physical exercise activities” differs according to the gender, and the motivation “To relax and spend time with family and friends” differs according to the age group, gender and whether the senior is retired or not.

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Correspondence to Ana Pacheco .

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Pacheco, A., Moniz, A.I., Silva, O. (2022). Senior Travel Behavior Before and After Retirement. In: Abreu, A., Liberato, D., Garcia Ojeda, J.C. (eds) Advances in Tourism, Technology and Systems. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 293. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1040-1_26

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