Proceedings of the 33rd International Academic Conference, Vienna

THE BEHAVIORS OF ELDERLY TRAVELERS IN TURKEY: ADANA CASE

EBRU ÖZGÜR GÜLER, HUSEYIN GULER, CEREN BORUBAN

Abstract:

According to the definition of the United Nations, a population is called “old” if the proportion of elderly population is between 8% and 10%, and “very old” if it exceeds 10%. In Turkey, the proportion of 65 years and older people is 7.7% in 2013, and it is expected that this proportion reaches 10.2% in 2023 according to the population projections. This study is designed to investigate elderly travelers in Adana, which has an old population now, and will have a very old population in the future. We investigate the demographic backgrounds of the respondents, the general information about the elderly traveler behaviors and the attributes in considering elderly travelers’ destination selection. We also examine the barriers on traveling and issues related to quality of staff and service. In order to do this, a survey is conducted on 100 old people living in Adana, Turkey. A mixed survey which has four sections is composed based on Shoemaker (2000), You et al. (2000a and 2000b), Gray et al. (2001), Kim et al. (2003), Pearce et al. (2005), Carneiro (2013), Ward (2014). Respondents are asked to answer demographic questions in section A, travel behaviors in section B, vacation route choice in section C, and travel barriers in section D. Factor analysis is conducted to identify underlying factors. The resulting factors are used to test the effect of demographic variables on travel barriers and issues related to quality of staff and service.

Keywords: Elderly travelers, Traveler behaviors, Traveler barriers

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2017.33.055

PDF: Download



Copyright © 2024 The International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences, www.iises.net