Personal travel spend for the 50+ American traveller exceeds $120 billion per year and will grow as baby boomers have more time to travel according to U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics data.
Through new research conducted on the travel habits of people 50+, AARP found that:
- Trips Per Year — Americans in the 50+ age demographic take about six overnight trips unrelated to business of at least 50 miles from home per year;
- Website Planning — Eight out of 10 Americans 50+ use websites to plan as well as book their personal travel;
- Time Spent Planning — Travellers 50+ spend about 30–36 hours per year planning personal trips online but would prefer to spend about half as much time per year (12–18 hours) planning; and
- Time Spent Booking — The 50+ traveller spends about 18 hours per year online booking personal travel but would prefer to spend about 12 hours per year (at least an hour less per trip) booking.
- Routine travel – 78% of 50+ travel is everyday life travel, trips that are more than a daily routine but not vacation: family gatherings, life events, emergencies, caregiving visits, quick getaways.
The new features that address some of the travel needs stated above and are also most desired by people 50+ include:
- Trip Finder — a visual series of questions to deliver ideas and recommendations for destinations — including some unexpected ones;
- Map Explorer — a detailed street-level interactive map that includes attractions, restaurants, hotels, local colour and reviews;
- My Trips — a personal page where users can save and organize trip ideas, itineraries and related articles in one place and add to or edit them over multiple visits;
- Articles and Destinations — travel tips from AARP Travel Ambassador Samantha Brown, articles specifically geared toward the 50+ traveller and information about hundreds of domestic and international locations; and
- Book Trips — booking tools provided through AARP’s relationships with Expedia and Liberty Travel that give you access to member discounts
Conclusion
The ability to book directly with Expedia, Liberty or hotels, air and car rentals directly is one component of the site, good for those who may decide that a trip is too complex to book on their own, or would prefer to work with an agent to help plan and manage their trip details.
The site uses a carousel design and deep page layout. This might confuse older users. But the navigation seems clean and simple enough to find ones way around.
Ironically, the AARP is particularly sensitive to doing anything that smacks of being exclusively for old people. They desperately need to continue to attract the retiring boomers who do not want to be associated with ‘old’.
Having said that, the tools mentioned above (Trip Finder etc) are classic travel site tools but there is little evidence that the site content has been designed with the particular travel needs and usability of older people in mind. Age-Friendly facilities, for example.
