Elderly Chinese, a market segment of increasing importance

According to a recent report, over 5 million elderly Chinese go travelling each year, accounting for almost €1.5 billion in tourism revenues in 2014. However, this number is bound to increase dramatically the over the coming years, with the number of Chinese people over the age of 60 increasing by approximately 10 million people every year, projected to reach a number of 400 million by 2033 in comparison to the 212 million elderly Chinese people today.

Not only will the number of elderly Chinese double in less than 20 years, but they are also very interested in tourism and consider it one of the main ways to enrich their lives after retirement. 47% of elderly Chinese have travelled long distance already, with 70% describing tourism as something that is important to them. Moreover, many Chinese people about to retire in the coming two decades are comparably well-educated and with more international experience than the generations before them, something that is likely to make them even more inclined to go travelling abroad.

Some of the more popular types of travel among elderly Chinese tourists are going on cruise tours and “red tourism” to Russia and Eastern Europe. “It’s probably because people at this age have some special attachment to those countries. They watched their movies, listened to the songs and read poems when they were young,” Han Tie, director of a tour company focusing on Eastern Europe said.

Fan Min, the president of China’s market leading online travel agency Ctrip said that he expects senior citizens to become Chinese tourism’s main force within the coming ten years, quoting the rapidly growing number of elderly Chinese as one of the main reasons for this development.

However, few destinations have caught on to the trend of elderly Chinese travellers, with Taiwan being one of the few destinations to actively focus on this market segment with tailored websites and tour packages according to “grey-hair tourism” demand.

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Source: Shanghai Daily

Photo: flickr