We are passionate about travel for so many reasons, but had no idea how many of our fellow Baby Boomers andempty nesterswere on the same page.
It’s crazy!
99% of Boomers are going to travel this year…ninety-nine percent! We almost spit-took coffee all over our keyboard when we saw that number.
We recently came across a survey conducted by AARP that blew our minds.
According to the results, adults 50+ are expected to spend over $120 billion this year on leisure travel to enrich their lives, visit family, relax, or “get away from normal every day life.”
The survey also shows that these voyagers plan on taking 4-5 trips within the year.
That’s a whole lot of us taking to the road and taking on the world!
Travel continues to be the number one aspirational activity for we people of a certain age.
What Surprised Us:
- 55% of survey respondents said cost was not a factor when planning their vacation. This is a sharp contrast to Millennials and Gen Xers, more than half of those respondents said cost was a barrier for leisure travel.
Baby Boomers tend to have a bit more money than their younger counterparts (70% of our nation’s disposable income is held by Boomers – makes sense, we’ve worked hard for a long time!). But your GypsyNesters seem to be tighter with a dime than the majority. We go out of our way to find travel discounts whenever we can.
- 43% of respondents said they must have free Wifi in their hotel and 86% said they must have complimentary Wifi in their vacation rental home.
Wifi is very important to The GypsyNesters while traveling, but we didn’t know how across the board this was for Boomers. When we are traveling, we’re so addicted to internet that we sometimes choose where we eat based on whether or not they have free wifi (and, trust us, that’s no way to decide on a restaurant!).
We’ve also been known to stand outside a building with our tablet and glom on to random signals. No matter where we are in the world, our first criteria in a hotel is that they have good wifi. (And then, there is always that awkward request at check-in where we ask for the room closest to the wireless router.) We’re a little nutty that way.
What Warms Our Hearts:
- 68% of Boomers say that when they’re on vacation, they do more smiling and laughing.
- 61% of survey respondents said that they spend more time with loved ones through travel.
- Different than the younger generations, Baby Boomers will take along good book
Smiling, laughing, loved ones – yes, yes, yes! Life is better when we experience new things together.
