Strategies of reaching the senior tourist

Macy, M. (1998), in his study regarding strategies in hotel services for senior/elderly, found the principal marketing tool employed to attract the senior clienteles has been discounted, which has become widespread amongst principal chains. Some hotel groups such as Rodeway, EconoLodge or Holiday Express, spurred on by the American Disability Act, have gone further to modify their structures and amenities to specific senior needs.

Others such as Howard Johnson, are seeking to reach the senior market by building other products or attractions with hotel services, or, like preferred hotels, are pursuing a “lifestyle marketing” approach to accessing a selected group of wealthy, active and mature customers, through forming partnerships with certain purveyors of luxury goods or services.

According to another article, in the future, it can be foreseen that these trends will be strongly reinforced around the world, as hoteliers, particularly those dealing with leisure-oriented clienteles, come to realise that special efforts will be needed to compete in this fast growing market segment.

Chestnut, T. J. (1993), a study on senior citizens and tourism in the United States uncovered that:

Persons of age 50 and above in the United States have:
∑ 77 percent of the national financial assets.
∑ 80 percent of the money in saving accounts,
∑ 68 percent of all money market accounts,
∑ Nearly 50 percent of all corporate stocks.

Persons of age 50 and above in the United States:
1. Earn 42 percent of the total after-tax income
2. Buy 48 percent of all the domestic new cars
3. Own their houses in 80 percent of the cases, and 80 percent of those are mortgage free
4. Have accounts with brokerage firms in 27 percent of cases.

Accessibility from the social perspective

Cultural and historical activities
Cultural and historical activities were among the most frequently reported activities by both groups. Slightly less than half of all respondents had visited a historical site, and approximately one-third had attended concert in the past 12 months.

Visitations to archaeological sites showed a lower rate of participation; however, approximately one-fifth of all respondents have visited an archaeological site. In order to obtain a clearer picture of differences in participation rates, participation differences in visiting historical places and attending concerts were compared and the overall results was, in the youngest and the oldest age categories, persons with disabilities had higher rates of participation than persons without disabilities. H owever, in the age categories these differences were either no real difference, or persons without disabilities participated at higher rates than persons with disabilities.

His conclusions in summary were, the presence of disability does not appear to have consistent relationship to rate of participation in outdoor activities. However, age was noted as a confounding variable in this relationship. Virtually in all activities, young persons participated at a higher rate than older persons regardless of ability. When age factored into the examination, a general pattern does tend to emerge. At the youngest and oldest age categories, persons with disabilities appear to participate at higher rates than persons without disabilities. In contrast in the middle age categories, persons without disabilities tend to show higher participation than persons with disabilities; however, the magnitude of difference is usually 1-5 per cent.

Accessibility Design Standard, under the auspices of America with Disabilities (ADA) in 1993, conducted accessibility survey in 30 hotels, motels, inns, and other places of lodging in Florida. The objectives of the study were both to check compliance and tourism sites accessibilities. The findings were:

Guestroom door- doors and doorways into and within all guest rooms and suites, including bathroom doors and doorways, do not allow 32 inches of clear opening width. As a result persons with disabilities are excluded from accommodations when accessible guestrooms are sold out and also are unable to visit other guests in their rooms. Guestrooms types and features – in 95 percent of the sample, accessible guestrooms were not dispersed among the various classes of rooms available at a lodging facility and do not provide persons with disabilities the same range of facilities available to others.

Therefore, persons with disabilities who desire or may need different classes of accessible guestrooms were denied the range of lodging options that other guests without disabilities can take for granted (e.g. rooms with one or more beds, suites, etc). In addition, 75 per cent of the accessible guestrooms and suites were not equipped with visual alarms and other visual notification devices for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Therefore, people who are deaf or hard of hearing cannot hear fire alarms, ringing telephones, knocking at the doors or ringing bells.

Accessible Routes-Interior and Exterior - in 85 percent of the sample, both the exterior pedestrian routes (e.g. sidewalks, walkways and plazas) on a site that people use to travel from public transportation stops, from accessible parking spaces, from passenger loading zones, and from public streets and sidewalks to the accessible entrance(s), and the interior routes (e.g. hallways and corridors) throughout the lodging facility, are not usable by persons who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids, or who are unable to climb steps or stairs. Therefore, once inside the lodging facility, persons with disabilities cannot get through the facility to the guestrooms, conference rooms, toilet rooms, restaurants, other various accessible elements and spaces.

60 percent of the lodging facilities with more than two floors of accessible space including any basement levels do not have full-size passenger elevators available for use by guests. Thus, persons with disabilities who are unable to use stairs and steps cannot gain access to the floors above and below the ground level and, in many instances, do not have access to the amenities provided in the lodging facility.

In 1997 NCA conducted a study to examine the relationship between social acceptance and leisure lifestyle of persons with disabilities. There were 39 individuals with disabilities and 257 individuals without disabilities who participated in the study, all of whom were registered and participating in inclusive leisure programmes. They were asked to complete three questionnaires to obtain demographic, leisure lifestyle, and social acceptance. Analysis of the data uncovered several relationships between the variables. First, there was no relationship between the perception of the persons with disabilities and what their peers without disabilities reported regarding social acceptance.

Specifically, in the inclusive leisure programme persons with disabilities, perceived that their peers without disabilities were neutral (neither accepting nor rejecting) towards them and persons without disabilities indicated they feel neutral towards their peers with disabilities. A neutral level acceptance may mean that participants with and without disabilities in inclusive programmes are not getting to know each other. A lack of personal interaction between persons with disabilities has been found to perpetuate stereotypes of persons with disabilities and limit their involvement in community activities including recreation/leisure time. A second relationship found was between perceived social acceptance and the frequency (how often they participate in inclusive programmes).

From the findings, it appears that perceptions of social acceptance matter, in that they may guide the decision making process of persons with disabilities as to how frequently they participate in inclusive leisure services. For example, if persons with disabilities perceived they are stigmatised in inclusive leisure setting, they may be less likely to participate on regular basis.

Finally, relationship was found between perceived social acceptance and social satisfaction (i.e. feeling like a member of the group, talking with fellow participants) of persons with disabilities. In particular, this finding showed that the less participants with disabilities perceived they were socially unaccepted; the less satisfied they were with the activities. A lack of satisfaction with leisure participation may result in a decreased sense of enjoyment, heightened level of stress, lack of sense of belonging, and increase social isolation. If persons with disabilities do not feel accepted or welcome, no amount of physical accessibility will create social acceptance.