Roaring seniors go on a cruise: applications of intelligent automation to boomers’ tourist experience

The demographic changes of the last fifty years, characterized by a constant and rapid aging of the population worldwide and a growth in the income gap between seniors and younger generations, imply a fundamental reflection on the new economic and managerial opportunities inherent to the older generations' consumer and tourist experience. The progressive aging of the population is a phenomenon of global interest that is seen with greater incidence in countries characterized by advanced economies and the resulting better living conditions (Eurispes, 2022), globally in fact as many as 80 percent of the over-65s reside in the twenty most advanced economies. The relationship between economic well-being and extra years lived with a better quality of life is a key factor (European Central Bank, 2022). The growth of the over-65s, according to United Nations data, is a growing phenomenon: it is expected to increase by five percentage points in 2040, from 9.5 percent of the world's total population to 14 percent, for a total of 10 billion individuals (United Nations, 2022). According to Istat forecasts, the phenomenon of population aging particularly affects Italy, among the longest-living countries in the world. In Italy today, the over-65s represent 23% of the total population, or 14 million people, with a growth rate that is fueled by several demographic and social phenomena (Osservatorio sulla spesa pubblica e le entrate, 2020). The centrality of the over-65s is in fact due not only to the size of one of the most populous generational cohorts ever but to a more nourished spending capacity of its members, due to better income conditions and the decumulation phase resulting from leaving the workforce (Shu & Shu, 2018). The aging of a generation of consumers who tend to be privileged, optimistic, confident, more youthful than the over-65s of a few decades ago, tech-savvy, and able to occupy their leisure time with social relationships, activities, and hobbies presents a major marketing opportunity. The aging of Baby Boomers is an arena of increased time and spending, resulting from greater income and asset security, but also better health and mobility skills. Baby Boomers now constitute a fundamental pool of interest for the tourism and hospitality market (Stončikaitė, 2022), and it is estimated that the senior market will be one of the most important driving forces of international tourism in the future (Balderas-Cejudo, Patterson, & Leeson, 2019; Francescato, Maierhofer, Minghetti, & Trinkaus, 2017). Indeed, the European Commission estimates an expected 140 million tourists over 60 in Europe in 2030, four times the number in 2010; most will come from Asia, followed by Europe, North and South America. In 2013, 76 million over-65s traveled. Their preferences were identified in the market segments of luxury travel, cruises, visits to family or friends, stays in beauty farm wellness centers, cultural travel, and medical tourism. Finally, the Baby Boomers are attractive consumers for technological innovations applied to various target markets. In the case of the tourism market, digital transformation has implemented the dimensions of today's senior tourism with tools to support the tourism experience and tourist journey, such as biometric sensors and wearables, remote body control apps, artificial intelligence, voice assistants, virtual reality and mixed reality, but also through robotics and home automation to support silver tourism (Poste Italiane, 2021). Based on these considerations, we identified cruise tourism as the application field of this research, as cruise tourism is recognized as a successful baby boomers' travel choice (Norwegian Cruise Line, 2022) and innovation and automation (e.g. smart hospitality on board, smart ship and energy management) emerged as top priorities for the cruise industry, resulting in more sophisticated and technologically-empowered cruise ships (Buhalis & Papathanassis, 2022).