China News Agency, Beijing, November 14 (Reporter Wang Zumin) According to the 2015 National Aging Office survey data, the annual number of Chinese elderly tourists has accounted for more than 20% of the total number of national tourists.

Wang Haitao, deputy director of the Institute for Aging Strategy of the China Research Center for Aging, said on the 14th that at present and for some time in the future, the demand for elderly tourism services from healthy and vigorous elderly groups will only become stronger and stronger. The two major products of vacation housing and health and wellness are expected. Become the mainstream of China's elderly tourism in the future.

  At the expert symposium on "Implementing the National Strategy for Active Response to Population Aging" held that day, Wang Haitao said that by the end of 2019, China had 254 million people aged 60 and over.

In this large-scale elderly group, most of them are healthy and energetic elderly people. They have the time, energy, economic foundation and desire to improve their quality of life, which makes it possible for the elderly to travel, including "migratory birds" for the elderly, and sojourning for the elderly. Gradually, it has become a basic form of old-age care service that it loves to hear.

  Researchers in the industry believe that the size of China's elderly tourism market can reach nearly one trillion yuan based on an average of three trips per year for each elderly person, with a consumption of 1,500 yuan (RMB, the same below).

Wang Haitao said that because the elderly are more price-sensitive and have little restrictions on holidays, they tend to become the main force of peak shifting after the holiday, which not only forms the "complementarity" of the off-peak and peak season tourism market, but also directly expands the off-season performance growth of the tourism industry. Space.

  He said that according to the "slow tourism" characteristics of the elderly market, leisure products with holiday attributes are the leading products in the elderly market. Under the stimulation of the elderly market’s demand for health, health care, and elderly care, vacation homes, health and wellness The two major products are expected to become the mainstream of elderly tourism in the future.

  "According to a survey conducted by the China Aging Research Center, my country’s urban empty-nest families have reached 49.7%, and rural empty-nest and empty-nest-like families accounted for 48.9%. With the expansion of empty-nest families, the elderly’s free time has increased and the available funds Freedom, more and more elderly people go out of their homes and travel around like "migratory birds". The "migratory bird-style" residence and retirement will become a way for the elderly to provide for the elderly." Wang Haitao said.

  He believes that due to the relatively single supply of products in the tourism service market for the elderly in China, the lack of soft services and medical services, the urgent need to improve supporting facilities for aging, the development of human resources, and the lack of information management platforms, the elderly’s tourism consumption The needs are far from being met.

Coupled with the fact that the elderly have low awareness of rights protection and limited communication skills when coping with phenomena such as compulsory shopping and self-finance, it is easy to fall into the "trap" of unreasonably low prices.

Therefore, tourism services for the elderly in China urgently need to be actively guided to form a standardized market and a healthy atmosphere.

  Wang Haitao said that tourism services for healthy and vigorous elderly people not only affect the quality of life of this group in their later years, but also inevitably occupy a place in the strategy of actively responding to the aging of the population. It needs to pay more attention to and do something during the 14th Five-Year Appropriate institutional arrangements.

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