26 Jun
Growing Cultural Tourism Market Driven by Baby Boomers
Burnet Thorne Cultural Group, a tourism planning and development company in Ontario Canada, has been advising Canadian regions such as Whistler about the development of cultural tourism. Cultural tourism is “tourism that is motivated by an interest in other peoples, other places, other cultures and in Canada, the total domestic spending by Canadian cultural tourists now exceeds Can$3 billion p.a. What is driving the market demand for cultural tourism experiences? According to Steven Thorne, the aging Baby Boomers top the list. Although cultural tourists are distributed across all age and income cohorts, well-heeled Boomers drive the cultural tourism market. Culture-consuming Boomers earn more, spend more, travel more frequently, and stay longer than other tourists in the destinations they visit. They are the tourism industry’s best friends. The best salaried and educated generation in North American history, they ”seek learning and enrichment when they travel – the precise travel rewards that cultural tourism provides”. This is a growing demographic. By the year 2020, the combined Canadian/U.S. population between the ages of 55 and 74 will swell to 83.5 million – a 39 percent increase from 2008. Women are another factor in the growing popularity of cultural tourism. Key players in travel decision making, women typically have a greater interest in arts and culture than do men.
