Tour Operators Reignited by Vaccinated Seniors Restless to Travel
Photo Credit: A group of senior enjoying a tour from Road Scholar in Paris, a scene surely to be replicated in the months ahead as vaccinated baby boomers hit the road Road Scholar
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Older travelers represent an enormously lucrative market. And as more are getting vaccinated, tour operators are rushing to accommodate them in a welcome sign for one of travel's hardest-hit sectors.
During the last several months, countless tour operators have resumed tours, conducting business much differently than prior to the pandemic with fewer guests, social distancing, and health screening requirements.
While those businesses were among those hardest hit by the pandemic, widespread vaccinations are assisting them in welcoming back an important market: older travelers itching to travel again.
A UK study tells that story—77 percent of older respondents to a recent 2021 survey by Silver Travel Advisor, a website devoted to travel by those over 50, said they plan to book travel within six months of being vaccinated. Furthermore, 86 percent said they would spend as much or more on travel in the next year while adding they missed overseas travel even more than hugging their grandchildren.
Those older travelers are incredibly valuable in the travel industry. In the United Kingdom alone, people older than 50 represent just below 60 percent of the country’s travel and to
