Características e atributos relevantes nas atividades de turismo para o segmento de turistas da terceira idade.

Abstract

Tourism in the elderly appears as a way to contribute to emotional health, developing the ability to relate, providing knowledge of new cultures, in its available time, being motivating when well planned for this segment of tourists. Understanding the needs of senior tourists in their perception helps in the adequacy of the services offered to serve them more effectively, by incorporating the attributes considered important by this segment of consumers. In this perspective, the general objective of this study is to Identify the attitudes, preferences and attributes of tourism activities considered relevant for the senior tourist segment and, more specifically, (a) to verify which attitudes are more frequent among senior tourists, regarding the frequency of trips, lodging and means of transportation; (b) to understand the reasons that lead senior citizens to participate in tourism activities; and, (c) to identify the main attributes of tourism activities considered important for senior tourists. The present work was methodologically based on a descriptive research and a quantitative study, having as target population elderly tourists who make trips in the national territory. The sample of the present work was for convenience, where the sample was of 100 tourists of third age surveyed. The results show that this market segment has as its main attribute in the activities related to tourism the security question, and this can be associated to the fact that senior citizens have a great interest in practicing pleasant activities for the body and mind, which includes safe leisure, through trips.