Determinants of Destination Choices of Traveling for Old-age Resources: Evidence from Urban Older Adults

ABSTRACT

Traveling for old-age resources (TOR) is an effective means of satisfying urban older adults’ needs for healthcare and improving their quality of life. Understanding TOR destination preferences helps manage and alleviate old-age resource shortages in cities. This study examined Chinese urban older adults’ preferences for TOR destinations, exploring the effects of motivations, constraints, satisfaction, quality of life, frequency, and length. The Chinese city tier system was considered in classifying the destinations. Multinomial logistic regression modeling was employed for data analysis on 367 urban older adults from China. The results suggested that TOR destination choices regarding general/specific destination types are subject to the identified factors. This study helps policymakers and practitioners understand how these factors affect seniors’ TOR decisions when developing, managing, and marketing these destinations. More theoretical and practical implications are discussed within the realms of senior living and senior tourism.

摘要

旅游养老是满足老年人养老资源需要和提升生活质量的一种有效方式。理解旅游养老目的地选择 (城市vs.乡村) 能够帮助管理和缓解城市养老资源短缺。本研究借助367个中国老年人的数据, 基于旅游养老动机, 旅游养老限制, 旅游养老满意度, 旅游养老后的生活质量, 旅游养老频率和目的地停留时间等因素, 探究了城市老年人旅游养老目的地选择的影响因素。根据城乡差异和乡村旅游目的地类型, 本研究将旅游养老目的地分别划分为2类, 5类和8类。多分类逻辑回归结果显示, 上述因素对不同分类的旅游养老目的地类型具有不同程度的影响。本研究结果有助于政策制定者和实践者很好地理解城市老年人旅游养老目的地选择的类型及其影响因素, 从而有益于他们规划, 管理和营销旅游养老目的地。

KEYWORDS:

• Traveling for old-age resources
• motivations
• constraints
• destination choices
• urban older adults

关键词:

• 旅游养老
• 动机
• 限制
• 目的地选择
• 城市老年人

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

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Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yu Pan

Yu Pan is Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Marketing, College of Business, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, PR China. His research interests include destination marketing, consumer behaviors, elderly tourism, and Quality-of-Life (QOL) (E-mail: [email protected]).

Bingna Lin

Bingna Lin is Ph.D. candidate at Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, USA. She is interested in consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism, social media marketing, and destination marketing (E-mail: [email protected]).

Xiaoxiao Fu

Xiaoxiao Fu is Associate Professor at Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, USA. Her research area is consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism (E-mail: [email protected]).

Arthur Huang

Arthur Huang is Assistant Professor at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management and College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida, USA. His research interests include big data analytics, smart tourism, and the future of work in the digital economy (E-mail: [email protected]).

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.