Journal of Vacation Marketing

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.

The no-frills carriers, through clearly articulated strategies, have successfully challenged the power and dominance of major carriers, and have contributed to the identification of a market segment attracted by low air fares and efficient airline service. The rapid development of Europe’s ‘low-cost’ carriers has found Southwest and Valuejet to be valuable models to follow. This study is based upon qualitative research with marketers in the UK no-frills sector. The results indicate differences in the marketing approach and also the way the marketplace has responded, with the more traditional airlines embarking upon cost-cutting and alliance strategies. Regarding the future, as the European airline industry increases in competitiveness the opportunities for ‘low-cost’ competition may become restrictive. Further problems, such as those of Debonair and a reoccurrence of US-style bankruptcies and mergers, could lead to a reconfigured industry and a higher range of European fares.

Within the literature on tourism marketing and place promotion, there is very little research related to movie sites, including television programme locations, in Britain. This study discusses the concept of movie-induced tourism in relation to the wider phenomenon of cultural and literary tourism. The challenge of measurement is considered via a small-scale survey of visitors to Notting Hill in London, the setting for the successful movie starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. The results showed a visitor profile which is fairly consistent with the findings from the literature; frequency results indicated that many visitors to Notting Hill had a fairly clear destination image prior to their visit, a large number of respondents knew of other television and film locations and a majority of respondents would consider travelling to television or film locations in the future. About two-thirds of respondents agreed with the fact that television programmes and films encourage tourism to a certain area, which shows an overall awareness and acceptance of the phenomenon of movie-induced tourism within the survey population.

As a result of ever-intensifying competition, destination managers are increasingly in need of comparative information in order to identify their relative product strengths and weaknesses, a critical step in formulating appropriate competitive actions. It is highly likely that tourism destinations failing to pay attention to the performance delivered by their competitors, not knowing their own potential shortcomings in service delivery, and overlooking the improvement of tourist experience and satisfaction stand to lose their market share. Focusing on Turkish tourism, this study aimed to provide destination managers with exploratory insights into what tourists regarded as the components of a satisfying holiday experience and how tourists perceived the destination performance relative to other destinations. A modified experience-based framework was adopted in order to understand tourists’ perceptions of the destination relative to other destinations, and whether experiences with other destinations affected their present holiday evaluation. The study found that tourists might judge the destination’s performance on a set of attributes, some being more tangible, and some being relatively more important. The relation found between tourists’ perceptions of other destinations and their evaluation of the current holiday suggests that what other destinations have to offer might affect tourists’ current satisfaction judgments and their future behavioural intentions. Managerial implications of the study are discussed.

Given the projected growth of the senior citizens market, designing specific marketing strategies to meet the prospective needs of elderly tourists will become increasingly important. There has been an implicit assumption that there will be a close relationship between the travel behaviour of today’s seniors and those of future ones. This paper reports on a re-analysis of results of the German annual travel survey (Reiseanalyse), and suggests that such an assumption might be misleading. Tourist demand and travel behaviour are not necessarily determined by age, but by generation. For the last third of the life cycle, the travel behaviour of a particular generation seems to be quite rigid, and does not change significantly because of factors such as retirement. The results of this analysis show that travel propensity, or patterns of tourist behaviour, remain the same up to 20 years for a given generation. Therefore, understanding the future travel behaviour of senior citizens is perhaps not as difficult as it might first appear. In conclusion, the actual travel behaviour (including expectations, motivations and aspirations) of people aged between 55 and 65 years in 2000 allows a prediction of prospective travellers aged 65 to 75 years in the year 2010. Such an approach supplies reliable data for the design of future marketing strategies and suitable products.

This paper considers the feasibility of setting up a tourism-focused glass-bottom boat business on Magnetic Island, Townsville, Australia. The success of a tourism venture is dependent on an understanding of the market. However, it is not unusual for tourist destinations and businesses to commence operations and undertake promotion without first establishing the size of the market and the overall viability of the venture. This paper reports on a survey of domestic and international visitors to Magnetic Island with respect to the feasibility of setting up a low environmental impact glass-bottom boat business. The survey established that while such a business would be viable on Magnetic Island, from other perspectives the business might not be. Four alternative options are considered.