Wooing zoomers: marketing to the mature traveler

The purpose of this paper is to highlight consumer trends relating to the baby boomer generation and identify the relevant marketing communications required to connect with these travelers.

This study involved a thorough review of recently published marketing research and new reports dedicated to the baby boomer generation and the travel industry.

Traveling boomers are looking for a memorable experience rather than a holiday, seeking authenticity, spiritual and mental enlightenment, nostalgia, convenience and spontaneity, all packaged in a safe, customized, healthy, green wrapping and delivered with great customer service. To connect with these boomers, marketers should emphasize youth, use nostalgia, show how to improve boomers' lives, provide detailed information, promote the experience, and use a variety of media.

The literature on marketing to baby boomers is fragmented and sometimes contradictory. This could be because the boomer market is not homogenous. Further research is needed to understand the different segments of the boomer market. Recognizing the differences among these segments and understanding their motivations and desires, can help tourism marketers craft products, strategies and messages that will resonate with this generation.

The key to securing and retaining this growing lucrative segment is better understanding of how they behave, their buying motivations and their needs as they get older. This paper has moved one step forward in this understanding by identifying the key psychographic nuances of the traveling boomer and suggesting how to connect with them.

This is an original contribution in that it is one of the first academic papers to address the traveling baby boomer. It will be of significant value to those marketing tourism services in the twenty‐first century.