Surge in vacationing Chinese seniors drives travel business

Statistics show as much as 40 percent of the senior Chinese are willing and able of going on a tour, at home and abroad. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Chen joined a community badminton club, of which many members are also seniors and travelers. Once in a while, they organize group tours by themselves across the country and when going on trips within the province they prefer to drive their own cars, as it is more flexible than renting a tour bus or taking trains.

As for outbound tours, the couple would still like to turn to help from travel agencies that would arrange a variety of choices catering to their special needs. In the year 2014, the couple booked a two-week package tour to the United States at the beginning of this year, which cost about 30,000 yuan for each person. In late October, they went to Japan for a week, escaping the rush during the National Day holiday.

With more diversified travel products available and a further segmented travel market, there are more options to choose from for senior citizens who want to travel both home and abroad. Apart from the conventional package tours, senior Chinese have made their appearance in the most popular fashions among younger tourists: be it independent tour or self-driving, and even cruise trips.

HH Travel, the high-end travel brand under Ctrip Group, said the small and medium-sized cruises are very popular with the senior citizens, especially those toward destinations that include the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, Alaska and the Caribbean.

"Most of the cruises offered offer butler services which can very well take care of the senior tourist," said Yang Mengyue, publicity officer of HH Travel.

"The senior tourists can go travel on the foreign land in the day time and rest on the cruise in the night, which will excuse them from the possible hardships of travel."

Most of the cruises only receive some 100 guests, so that the senior citizens do not have to queue up and are guaranteed a well-tailored service, she said.

However, for those senior tourists whose physical conditions are not fit for long-distance trips, home destinations and neighboring countries in the East and Southeast Asia seem best choices.

Ctrip has special tour products tailored for the senior, Happy Tours for Parents, hundreds of routes of which cover home and abroad, said Yan Xin, publicity officer of Ctrip.

Suggested by Yan, the trips are better and less bumpy, to avoid any physical discomfort during the trip. Extreme activities such as scuba diving, jet splash and hot spring are not recommended to prevent possible serious illness or injury.