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Senior Travellers as Users of Online Travel Services: A Qualitative Enquiry

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015

Abstract

Importance of senior travellers as travel segment for the tourism industry increases continuously as the number of pensioners increases. These new senior travellers differ from earlier generations in many ways, one being increasing use of Information and Communication Technologies as part of their information search process. This study examines senior travellers as users of online travel services such as websites. A qualitative approach is chosen to provide insights into the topic and nine Finnish pensioners are interviewed. The results are analysed using content analysis. The results show that the senior travellers are a very heterogeneous segment regarding online travel services. However, there is no special marketing or website design that senior travellers really need but a good website also caters for the needs of younger as well as older consumers. More attention has to be paid to use of pictures and colours on websites as well as instructions.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Council of South Savo/the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Operational Programme for Eastern Finland.

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Correspondence to Juho Pesonen .

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Pesonen, J., Komppula, R., Riihinen, A. (2015). Senior Travellers as Users of Online Travel Services: A Qualitative Enquiry. In: Tussyadiah, I., Inversini, A. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14343-9_60

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