As the greatest proportion of ageing people is today located
in Europe (around 15 per cent of the European population
age 65 and over, in comparison to 14 per cent in Japan and 13
per cent in the USA (United Nations, 2009)), it appears as an
opportunity to lead this research over there. More precisely,
we focus on the French senior market, whose trends and
demographic characteristics are congruent with those
mentioned previously for the global ageing population:
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more than 30 per cent of the French population is already 50 years old and over (INSEE, 2008);
there was an increase of the tourism consumption of this group over the last ten years; and
tourism is the number one priority for the French senior consumers (before housing and clothes) (French Tourism Department, 2004).