Spending on ‘Travel/holiday’ ranks equally important as ‘Childrens education’ according to our SilverPoll study conducted in January ’09.
Based on a sample of around 170,000 internet users 50+, in response to one question “Do you intend to save more in the coming 12 months?” among those who said “yes” most intended to ‘save or invest’ more but the top two expenditures were:
| Australia | China | India | Japan | Singapore | HK | |
| Personal travel/holiday | 12% | 12% | 8% | 11% | 14% | 6% |
| Children’s education/welfare | 3% | 16% | 10% | 7% | 11% | 14% |
Singapore recently held the NATAS Travel Fair where exhibitors reported strong business. Organizers expected some 50,000 to turn up for the three-day fair, spending some $50 million in tour packages. Sales were expected to remain on par with last year’s show during the same period.
If there were any doubt about the power of the ‘silver dollar’ in the travel segment here are some sobering stats from the Travel Industry of America (TIA).
- Baby boomers take 45% of all trips each year; 65-plus take another 24%.
- 60% of e-travelers – online leisure travel planners – were born before 1965. (TIA)
- Boomers spend the most online for travel, too – $2,249 each year. (TIA)
- Silent Generation travelers may spend less time researching travel online than Gen X, but the older group spends more on online travel purchases ($2,086 a year vs. $2,028 for Gen X). (TIA)
- Boomers also boast the largest portion of food money spent dining out – $2,445 each year. (BLS/National Restaurant Association)
