Old People? Er, shove 'em in a coach. They'll be happy!

I like this article in the Montreal Gazette about what baby-boomers want from travel.

Older people remain loyal to the same brand for life; when they travel, they shuffle about and cluster together on tour groups; they dislike venturing off the beaten path; they fear and loathe technology; they like slow-paced activities; and they're all retired.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

It's not really saying anything many/most of us don't already know... if we think stop to about it. But I suspect that many travel providers, marketers and journos, when they stop concentrating, sort of lapse back to the old default stereotypes.

I mean, what do you want to do on a holiday/break? This year, while you're 20/30/40? What interests you? What are the things you've always wanted to see/do? Where are the places you've always fancied going?

So, why, making a small allowance for stamina maybe, would you not want to do them when you're 50/60/70?

And why wouldn't you research/buy them online? You've grow up with computers and the Internet... but so have the oldies. Today's 50/60 yr-olds on the edge of formal retirement are the 'Windows' generation. They were using Windows 3.1 at work.

Hell, my ex-mother-in-law, running around on the golf course every moment she's not travelling somewhere interesting and now approaching her 70s, was a punch card programmer at Lyons Tea in the 1950s. For her, computers have just got easier & easier!