Research On Senior Tourism Industry Of China Under The Background Of Population Ageing

Population ageing is the dynamic process of the elderly population proportion rising, that is the inevitable result and common law of the development of human society, also is the comprehensive problems and challenges facing human society. With the accelerating development of China’s population ageing, its influence of political, economic and social development in China is also growing. With the largest number of old people, coupled with the fastest population ageing speed, population ageing becomes a social norm in China. By the end of 2013, population of China’s elderly, who is 60 and over 60 years old, has reached 202 million, accounting for 14.9% of total population, and by the end of 2014 reached has 212 million,15.5%, meanwhile the ageing population scale and development speed will continue to increase rapidly. An ageing population not only posed challenges to industrial structure adjustment, but opportunities. An aging population provides a huge market for industries focused on senior people. The senior tourism is being one of emerging industries by the elderly population increased significantly and travel demand increased significantly. The senior tourism is a typical "silver industry" for elderly services, being an integral part of elderly industries. Developing the elderly tourism industry is a major countermeasure to deal with population ageing situation, and inevitable requirement of improving the elderly quality of life and building a harmonious society, also is the need of social economic development itself. It is necessary to expand senior tourism for tourism market segments, structure adjustment and transformation reform.Based on this background, a study on the China’s senior tourism industry would contribute to the theory exploration and practical guidance in this field. At present, research of elderly tourism is in a relatively backward state, hasn’t any specialized book yet, and theoretical studies are rare about this subject. Thus, this study, that is comprehensive and systematic, would further enrich the theory of China’s senior tourism. At the same time, to strengthen researches about China’s senior tourism under the population ageing background, facing the difficult reality and serving real needs of elderly tourists in the senior tourism industry development in China, could provide theory support guides and countermeasure suggestions for the practice of elderly tourism industry in China.In this paper, various methods can be used to in this paper, including but not limited to:the literature analysis method, the survey method, the statistical analysis, the comparative research and the case study method, etc. According to the train of thought step by step, which is from the basic theory, to theoretical analysis, history and reality, cases demonstration, international experiences, and to countermeasure suggestions, this study focuses on how to promote sustainable development of senior tourism industry in China.Firstly, large number of relevant theoretical researches of experts and scholars and relevant statistics and reports from government departments are consulted and reviewed, the basic relevant theory of senior tourism industry are summarized. The senior tourism industry is the modern service industry to provide travel services for elderly tourists, with an overlapping of tourism industry and ageing industry. It has the characteristics of both the ageing industry and tourism industry, which is comprehensive, vulnerable, low-in-profit and requires cooperation.Secondly, we conduct theoretical reasoning, inference and deduction, to conclusion with the factors that affect China’s senior tourism industry. Applying the input and output model, we find out that the supply of senior tourism industry is limited by two factors:the elderly tourism demand and the internal efficiency of economic system. On the one hand, the factors that affect senior tourism demand include:disposable income, health condition, product preference of the elderly people for tourism products, pricing, tourism destinations accessible, the friendliness of destinations to the elderly tourists, and prices of substitute goods, etc. From the perspective of function and consumer utility maximization, the major factors that affect the demand for senior tourism products and services are the whether they are specialized and professional. On the other hand, there are many factors that affect the internal efficiency of the economic system. Take the linkage efficiency of China’s senior tourism industry, we find out the most important key to optimize industry efficiency is well-structured binding regulations and institutions.Thirdly, investigation and statistical analysis are used for empirical analysis of the historical and realistic development of elderly tourism industry in China. Elderly tourists, tourism administrative departments, senior tourism enterprises, senior tourism industry groups, etc, are interviewed in the field sampling survey and questionnaires, interviews, focusing meeting;<The tourists sampling survey data>(2003-2012) by policies and regulations department of national tourism administration and <The travel service industry development report of China (2013)> by China Tourism Academy are used, for displaying comprehensively development history, present situation and the trend of senior tourism industry in China, and analyzing in-depth the main problems and causes. China’s senior tourism industry was emerged and developed under the background of population ageing. After different phases of development, budding stage, exploration stage and developing stage, it is now in the early developing stage and in its fast track. At present, the development of China’s senior tourism industry shows the following characteristics:the market demand is growing but still needs to be cultivated further; elderly tourism destinations are increasing in scale, but still needs to be boosted; and elderly tourism enterprises become more competitive, but still needs to be more stronger; elderly tourism industry organizations are playing an important role, but still need to be better regulated. Along with the momentum of its fast growing, it is expected that China’s elderly tourism industry will received more government support; industries focused on tourism and senior people will deepen its reform to transform and upgrade. The merging and expanding global market ushers in unprecedented opportunity for China’s elderly tourism industry. But there are also many challenges. Being in the primary stage of its development, some important issues need to be dealt with in China’s senior tourism industry. The first one, despite of strong travel consumption demand, there is a lack of actual travel rate, consumption ability and awareness to consume while traveling. The second one, in terms of supply side of the industry, the market is underdeveloped, with the tourism products and services short in amount and low in quality. Businesses in the industry are usually small in scale and low in cooperation efficiency, thus resulting in weak industry competitiveness. The last, the external environment for China’s senior tourism industry is far from mature. The political, legal, economic, social, cultural, technological and natural environment needs to be optimized urgently. Some methods can be used to analyze reasons, including but not limited to: questionnaires, interviews, focusing meeting, the statistical analysis, grounded theory, PEST model, etc, we find out the reasons for the existing problems of the senior tourism industry of China.Fourthly, the case study and comparative study are used to summarize the typical domestic cases of senior tourism industry development of China verifies the theoretical deduction and international cases of senior tourism industry from developed tourism countries. The typical cases are including those of Guangzhou Hualingmei international elderly travel agency, Chinese elderly tourism association, the elderly tourism destination in Hebei Qinhuangdao. Meantime, the practice approaches and experience from European countries, Japan, American and some Southeast Asian countries, provide inspiration and reference to the development of senior tourism industry in China.How to promote a sustainable development of the senior tourism industry of China? Based on the previous analysis, four proposals are given:First, follow the scientific principles of senior tourism development, including market-oriented principle, people-oriented principle, principle of quality first, principle of coordinate development and the low profit principle. Second, promote healthy and positive ageing tourism consumption concepts, including:positive attitude toward ageing, the concept of citizen leisure rights, the concepts of healthy tourism and safety first. Third, implement an appropriate future-oriented strategy, which is the key and the core content of the development of senior tourism industry, including:constructing reasonable senior tourism product system, developing appropriate marketing pattern, creating high-quality senior tourism brand and building efficient linkage within senior tourism industry. Fourth, build a perfect external environment for developing senior tourism, including supporting policies, a culture that promotes senior tourism and a well-structured institutional system for senior tourism.