Factors under the Influence of the Elderly Tourists' Motive in Vietnam: Study in Hanoi

Abstract

Travel is such an excellent way to relieve tension and an exciting and rewarding journey for everyone with new experiences, delicious specialties, beautiful scenery, and unique living pace. Travelers reported that their stress and anxiety are almost disappeared when returning home after the holiday. A study at the University of Surrey (2002) concluded that people perceived happier and more delightful when travelling. In recent years, as society develops with the improvement of living standards and health measures for life span expanding along increasing the life quality of elderly, tourism has played an important role in improving the quality of life of the elderly. Nowadays in Vietnam, with the development of all aspects of life, there have been a large number of elderly people wishing to travel. According to statistics of Vietravel, the number of customers aged 50 and over of the business accounted for 35%, of which 87% are regular customers, going for 2 - 3 times or more. In the world, there have been many studies illustrating factors affecting the behavior of tourism of the elderly, but the number of studies on the elderly subjects is still limited. Approaching from the needs of the elderly has not been widely conducted because the travel behavior studies has mainly focused on travelling motivation such as: tourism marketing; strategies for providing tourism services; destinations development... The question is what factors affect the travel behavior of the elderly in Vietnam. Due to the differences in the political system, economic level, education attainment level and living habits between Vietnamese elderly and foreign elderly, the conclusions may not be appropriate for the elderly in Vietnam. Understanding elements arising from the needs of the elderly influencing their travel behaviors is a necessary for tourism managers to improve services quality and attract the elderly to travel. As a result, the travelling for the elderly to improve their health condition, living standards, longevity and spiritual life for the elderly has become a problem concerning society. The article applied both qualitative and quantitative researches. Descriptive statistics were used to describe differences in travel behaviors of the elderly by age, gender, health status, and incomes. The observational factor analysis with 16 variables was used to find out factors affecting the behavior of tourism among the elderly. In addition to secondary data collected from books, newspapers and reports, there were primary data sources collected from 300 elderly people randomly selected and in-depth interviews with 10 cases living in Hanoi. Research results demonstrated that the four main determinants of the behavior of the elderly were self-esteem (relaxation motivation for "desire to relax both mind and body, gain health benefit  through leisure activities, resting health care, recreation, entertainment, physical activity), socialization (meet new people, visit friends and relatives, create memories with family and friends), seek knowledge (learn about historical sites, explore nature) and self-actualization (desire through tourism activities to express prestige, status, social recognition, self-improvement, personal development). The results revealed that: among the 300 elderly participants in the age group of 60-69, the majority of men planned to travel more but the difference was slightly negligible, mainly was married men with their family. People with average incomes and income mainly from pensions occupied the majority of the traveling elderly. The most of elderly people traveling with family and friends, therefore, backpacking tourism was preferred by 65.52% among the elderly in the survey. Self-organized trips helped the elderly to have close spaces with their family and friends and create memories with them. The article also offered some solutions to develop and attract this potential customers group: Developing attractive tourist products suitable for age, health and needs; Wide range of tourism forms such as: sightseeing travel, leisure travel, medical travel, spiritual travel; therefore, tour agency should pay close attention to invest in expansion types of service products to meet this need of the elderly; Traveling tours with different suitable prices for each type of the elderly should also be designed; Strengthening, enhancing health care equipment to ensure the safety of the elderly throughout the trip; Upgrading and developing the infrastructure of destinations such as physiotherapy area, green spaces is an important issue that needs addressing to promote the traveling motivation of the elderly.