The Effects of Senior Tourists’ Characteristics on Travel Motivation

Despite the importance of the relationship between the sociodemo-graphic characteristics of senior tourists and travel motivation, research about senior consumer behavior intentions remains scarce. The purpose of this re-search is to outline the travel motivations of senior tourists and to investigate which sociodemographic characteristics are important in explaining these moti-vations. With 537 valid surveys from senior tourists visiting the Azores islands, a three-factor solution was found from 17 travel motivation attributes. The re-sults show that “Well-being and self-knowledge” depends on nationality, per-ception of income and perception of health status; “Knowledge about destina-tion and personal learning” depends on nationality and age group; and “Socia-bility and fun” depends on age group.