Senior Tourists’ Purchasing Decisions in Group Package Tour

The senior demographic group is growing rapidly. Family decision-making research has frequently examined relationships between husbands and wives across stages and subdecisions. To supplement previous research, this study examines how different roles’ influence over the decision-making stages when the senior tourist participates in a group package tour. A total of 293 senior tourists from Taiwan were surveyed and asked to indicate the amount of influence each family member and ‘others’ had. Results showed that husbands tend to have the most influence in the final purchase, and one interesting finding is that ‘others’ exhibit the highest degree of influence in the information search stage. In addition, the husband shows more influence in 9 subdecisions, and as family income level rises there is a rise in the likelihood of husband dominating with respect to the GPT. Finally, implications for tourism marketers and areas for future research are discussed.