Life Course Analysis of Older Tourists:

Implications for Active Ageing Agenda

Gareth Shaw – Exeter, UKAndrjez Tucki – Lublin, PolandMaria Custodio – Algarve, PortugalPaul Cleave – Exeter, UK

Active Ageing in the EU

• Active ageing – helping people stay in charge of their own lives as they get older allowing contributions to society and economy

• 2012 – European Year promoting Active Ageing

2010-2060• Over 65 yrs grows from 17.4% to 29.5%• Over 80 yrs grows 3 times to 12%• Pressure on pensions, health care and long term care

systems

Functional Activity over the Life Course

Scope of Research Project

Life Course Analysis of Retired People and their holiday taking

Stage of intervention active ageing

Process of intervention – social marketing

Tourism and Ageing (Life Course Analysis)

Use of biographical methods (Sedgley et al. 2006)

Understanding within the context of ‘life phases’ (Gibson and Yiannaki 2002)

‘Life events’ and tourism patterns of post-retired (Nimrod 2008)

Call for new agenda, tourism research embracing ‘critical gerontology’ (Sedgeley et al. 2011: 422

Developed in 1970’s as a means of examining patterns of work and family organisation (Harever, 1978)

It has been adapted to other contexts, e.g. shopping behavior (Bailey et al. 2010)

Life Course Analysis

Subject Mapping

Leisure Research

Gerontology• Engagement

/activation theory

• Disengagement theory

• Continuity theory

Tourism Research

Size of circle = number of publicationsAgeing and Leisure/Tourism Activities

• Centrality of tourism, Weiss (2005) essence of retirement

• Nimrod (2008) increased opportunity

Propositions between retirement and tourism

• Increased constraints (Blazey, 1992), negotiating mechanism (Hubbard and Mannell, 2001

• Continuity aspects (Nimrod, 2008)

Use of biographical questionnaires and oral histories (Bailey et al. and Nell et al. 2009)

Combination of these give a degree of consistency

Survey is based on 3 countries: UK, Poland and Portugal. 45 respondents (UK surveys between 1-3 hours)

Application of a combined biographical questionnaire and oral history to save time

Life Course Techniques

Scope of Survey

Biographical questionnaire

20 mins Life Course

Narrative analysis

Statistical analysis

UK 15 Poland 15 Portugal 15

Oral history

1- 3 hours

Life course

Lifecourse Years Destinations Important Activities Important meanings

Married 1961 Austria (Package) Wales (VFR) Scotland

Visiting different landscapes

Sightseeing cultural activities

Rest and Relaxation, VFR, health/wellbeing, Family

time

Son Daughter

1966 1967

1982 1986 1989

Canada (VFR) Canada (VFR) Canada (VFR) Scotland

House move to Bristol 1991 No holiday

1992 Wales (VFR)

Retired 1998

House move to Devon 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2008 2009 2014

Florida Norway (Cruise) Switzerland (package) Germany (Package) Black Sea Cruise Austria (Package) Hungary (Package) Scotland (VFR) Multiple holidays all by coach at

Rest/relaxation, Sightseeing

Adjustments due to medical issues

Wellbeing

Health constraints

George (82) and Jane (76) – Middle class

Life courseLifecourse Years Destinations Important

Activities Important meanings

Married 1976 Cornwall Lake District Wales

Scotland

ZĞƐƚĂŶĚƌĞůĂdžĂƚŝŽŶWŐŽŽĚĨŽŽĚW ůŽĐĂů

ĐƵůƚƵƌĞW ůĂŶĚƐĐĂƉĞƐ

' ŽŽĚĨŽƌŚĞĂůƚŚĂŶĚǁ ĞůůďĞŝŶŐWůŝƚƚůĞŝŶƚĞƌ ĞƐƚŝŶ

ƉŚLJƐŝĐĂůĂĐƚŝǀ ŝƚŝĞƐ

Child

1980 1989 1992 1997 2000 2003

Devon Cornwall Days out (VFR) Spain (Package) Austria (Package) Australia (VFR)

Austria

Retired

Wife 60th House Move Husband health issues Husband 70th

2005 2007 2010 2011 2012 2013 2013 2014

Switzerland (Package) No holiday No holiday Austia (Package) Scotland (Coach trip) Austria (Coach trip) Italy York (Package), Lake District (Package), Switzerland (Package)

Relaxation, food, landscape, culture

Increase importance of wellbeing. Also no

important constraints recognised

Jim (73) Joyce (70) Middle class

• ContinuityJackie (67):

‘Its much the same, in some ways I’ve always been like this as a child, I like doing things children like doing (exploring/discovering). I’d like to do one of these holidays like walking for softies, or painting for those without any talent’ (Interview E/4)

• Negotiating mechanismsMary (64) and John (70):

‘We do less sightseeing now, with John in a wheelchair it depends how far I can push him. We go off for the day, we go on trips. When we were in Budapest we’d go off after breakfast, we are slow, we don’t rush. I can’t do what I used to. Its not the barriers to taking a holiday, its barriers to what we can do when we get there. When we go on cruises they have trips that are organised or graded according to activities’

(Interview E/2)

Retirement activities and meanings