The elderly is not the same than in the past. For example, older people can now enjoy standards of living and lifestyles absolutely unthinkable in comparison with thirty years ago, thanks to increasing life expectancy and a general improvement of health conditions. The change has had obvious repercussions in every aspect of daily life, including the management of leisure and holidays. Seniors who choose to travel expect that normally want each of us, regardless of age: socialize and know cultural heritage. A phenomenon which has no borders and knows a real boom in Europe.
In France, in 2008, 55% of the over-65 went on vacation. In 1999, 58% of people among 60-64 years old pack too. In 2005, 66% of them. In the same year, in France, half of those included in the 70-79 age group left for at least twenty days to confirm that with increasing age also stretch the periods of stay away from home.
In Italy, in summer 2008, nearly 22% of the over-65 showed went on holiday, inside or outside national boundaries. According to a survey carried out by Censis among over-60, the leisure travel activities are preferred by 37% of them and planned in agenda for the remaining 42%.
“Sixty five is the new twenty five” said the English organization Age Concern Enterprises, for which 2009 was the top year in the UK for holidays planned by the elderly: +16% in 65-74 age group and + 40% in that of 75-87 than the previous year. Today, older people are also demanding customer and fussy “surfers”. Last year their online bookings grew by 35%.
Holiday means, for those who can physically allow it, a significant variety of cultural, touristic and recreational activities: golf, walking, bath, wildlife (safari trips), mountain chalet, archaeological sites, writing-writing retreats and courses. Travel-packages are offered, more and more, by local and regional institutions, associations, parishes and by the same travel agents and tour operators for which 25% of customers is now over-65.
If for many older people summer is synonymous with joy and distraction, for many of their peers summer is just synonymous with loneliness. This is the “other world” of the elderly, in poor condition and not in healthy , forced to spend the warmer months at home, in a total exclusion. This year, in Italy, they will be more than 7 out of 10, in France more than 4 out of 10. In Spain they will be 3.5 million, more than half of the total. Other old people prefer to spend the summer in the family rather than to undertake an external activity. In Italy, where family ties are on average stronger than in most other European companies, more than half of grandparents will take care of grandchildren.
In this framework there is another element to underline: the oppressive warm that every year kills a lot of seniors living in towns. For these reasons, many European governments have created emergency numbers for information and assistance to defend the most vulnerable people, and also approved plans to increase security in urban centers. As the French Interior Ministry that has developed a program for more efficient protection of seniors through more robust and permanent patrols of the neighborhoods where they live more, to protect them from assaults and thefts. A dangerous situation that often happens in summer when cities are more empty. According to recent data, in 2008, 1/3 of burglaries in apartments and 2/3 of the swindle (+42.3% between 2002 and 2008) were made against the over-60 people.
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