A model of senior tourism motivations—Anecdotes from Beijing and Shanghai

The study initiates an original inquiry into the motivations of senior tourism in China, a developing country which witnesses the fastest rate of aging in the world and is at the same time emerging as a global tourism superpower. A theoretical model is developed through an intense scrutiny of textual data collected through in-depth interviews. Using basic psychological theories on aging and motivation and adopting the grounded theory approach, the study proposes a tourism motivations model for Chinese seniors. The model consists of two main components: (1) external conditions include societal progress, personal finance, time, and health, of which personal finance and time are mediated through family support and responsibility; (2) internal desires include improving well-being, escaping routines, socializing, seeking knowledge, pride and patriotism, personal reward, and nostalgia. The first four factors are influenced by the life continuity concept, whereas seeking knowledge and pride and patriotism are affected by the respect concept. Further, the study puts forward eight propositions, each of which is discussed in reference to extant tourism motivation literature.