a report by an American travel insurance firm highlights that the generation of Baby Boomers, people born between 1946-1964, are surging back to travel now
Most of the research reports about how the global travel industry is revving up and recovering rapidly from the Covid-19 lows are focused on the younger travellers, mainly the millennials and Generation Z. However, a report by an American travel insurance firm highlights that the generation of Baby Boomers, people born between 1946-1964, are surging back to travel now that the two-year-long tide of Covid-19 concerns is receding.
New data released by global travel insurance and specialty benefits company Seven Corners finds that more Baby Boomers are buying travel insurance policies this year than did in 2021, with plan sales more than doubling over last year.
The report says that in the current economic conditions, the older and hence wealthier generation is at the forefront of travel’s resurgence, mainly perhaps because they had saved up to travel in their retirement years and the pandemic-prompted floodgates have finally reopened.
Seven Corners’ report indicates that more Boomers are purchasing travel insurance policies for their trips, with sales to this demographic group growing 54 pc on year-over-year basis. The report says that the travellers of Gen Z, or those born between 1997 and 2012, accounted for the second-highest increase in plan sales at 37 pc, followed by 22 pc growth in travel insurance sales for Gen X, or those born in the period 1965-1981. The Millennials, or those born between 1982 and 1994, recorded the slowest growth purchase of travel insurance, rising just 3 pc on a year-on-year basis.
“Some of the more modest increases may be partly because those generations simply continued to travel at steadier rates during and immediately after the pandemic,” said Seven Corners’ product marketing strategist Angela Borden. “The number of Baby Boomers who travelled in 2020 dropped quite significantly, more so than other age groups. To see them rebounding at this pace bodes well for the travel industry,” she adds.
As for the other reasons that Baby Boomers, in particular, may be flooding back to travel at an accelerated rate, Seven Corners identified two key factors. Firstly, the number of active Boomers remains high and constitutes a significant percentage of the US population. The 2020 U.S. Census estimated that 73 million Americans fall into this age group; and, in 2019, AARP reported that 46 pc of the US population was 50 years or older.
The report by Seven Corners highlights that the older generation has greater purchasing power than others. “Having more disposable funds and more free time available to them means that Baby Boomers are able to do more travelling than the younger generations. With many of them already being fully or semi-retired, or at least having earned more vacation days available, they are also more likely to venture farther from home on longer trips,” says the report.
Seven Corners’ data also revealed that American Boomers a returning to Europe this year as their overall preferred destination, with the top two most countries being Italy and the United Kingdom. Actually, when all generations are considered together, Italy comes in as the most popular destination for 2022, a dramatic shift from the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos which were the favourite American destination last year.
