AGE is getting involved in the new EU-funded project EUROSEN, which seeks to support economic growth in the tourism sector, while promoting active ageing and social interactions at a later age.
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The promotion of the senior tourism is a strategy for active and healthy ageing. In fact travelling provides life satisfaction and helps people stay active, avoids loneliness and lack of meaning in the later stages of life and tackle social exclusion, which are some of the main issues older people face today. Travelling can be an enriching experience for senior citizens as it provides a change in their daily routine; it involves discovery, interaction with the environment, intercultural contact and social interaction.
For this reason, AGE joins the Europe for Seniors project that pursues an economic objective (the strengthening of the European tourism industry with a specific focus on the micro, small and medium enterprises) and add to it a social goal: fostering the active life of the senior citizens, by involving them in the touristic initiatives both as travellers and as hosts of the visiting guests.
The main outcomes of the project will be:
- The design of senior-oriented travel packages,
- A new and effective organizational and business model for the senior tourism,
- The creation of a “Senior Tourism Quality Certification” programme,
- A pilot verifying the project’s outcomes and providing inputs for the follow up phase,
- A medium-term business plan for the implementation of the Europe for Seniors approach.
The project is based on a cooperative approach on a public-private partnership extended to the whole community (4P: public-private-people partnership), involving institutions(at local, regional and national levels), the tourism-related business sector with a focus on micro and small / medium enterprises (SMEs), Senior Associations, groups of interest and no-profit organizations (e.g. cultural associations), as well as the whole local community all together establishing an ad hoc entity called Cluster of Local Culture (CLC).
EUROSEN will then establish national and pan- European networks and will coordinate bodies for the Clusters of Local Culture CLCs.
Senior Associations are key players in the project: their members will act – on a voluntary basis – as local hosts to give the foreign peers a warm welcome and to allow them a full immersion in the local culture settling the basis for a reciprocation.
The adoption by the local institutions of measures for the realization of a favourable environment for the older visitors(adaptation of the existing infrastructure and products to the needs and interests of seniors, easy utilization of public services like transportation, hospital care, assistance to persons with special needs, utilization of cultural services, comfort and safety for the voyagers, etc.) and the building up with other countries of a policy of reciprocation of initiatives intended to facilitate the transnational travels of the senior tourists, make EUROSEN a concrete project implementing age-friendly measures on demographic change.
Last but not least, a cost-effective organization ensuring the sustainability of the model and allowing an offer with prices matching the demand of a wide spectrum of senior customers. The project will explore a mixed approach based on various forms of direct and indirect revenue.
For further information, please contact Ilenia.gheno@age-platform.eu
