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Washington, D.C. marketing consultant Anne Jardine agreed with some of Bloomberg’s forecasts for senior travel, particularly with pent-up demand; however, she also predicted an important change in decision-making.
“I think there will be be a collective, ‘eat, drink and be merry — for tomorrow we may die,’ attitude, and the market will be much more emotional than rational in just about everything,” she said.
“So travel might take on more of an aspect of spending lavishly on family gatherings, meeting up with long-lost friends — the people being more important than the location — retreats to cure the PTSD of the last year, trips of a lifetime that have been put off for too long.”
The nuts and bolts of it all will look the same, said Jardine.
“But it will be very different below the surface. Seniors will drive with their hearts and if the marketers have it right, that is what will fuel the surge,” she said.
Jardine disagreed with the idea that once vaccinated, seniors will feel free to travel freely again. They won’t actually feel safe until everyone else is vaccinated, too — including the younger generation that has willingly stayed locked down to protect the vulnerable.
“I think that seniors will continue to be very selective about with whom they travel, the size of the travel group, and whether they trust the travel company has responsibly vetted the group.”
As for the seniors’ market in general, Craig Patterson, CEO of Retail Insider, agreed that the demographic is often ignored.
