Seniors Make Up 20% of EU Tourism, Spend Less, Prefer Greece & Spain

The EU’s 65+ travelers account for one in five tourism nights, or 20 percent of the Union’s tourism activity but spend 20 percent less per day while on holiday, according to a Eurostat study released on occasion of World Tourism Day (September 27) under this year’s theme: “Tourism for All: Promoting Universal Accessibility”.

Older EU residents spent 52.60 euros a day, 12.7 euros less than the average tourist in 2014, with the Greeks being among the thriftiest of the lot spending a mere 18 euros per day, followed by the Lithuanians at 19.1 euros and the Hungarians at 19.2 euros.

The most extravagant of the “sunset year vacationers” were from Luxembourg, spending 120.80 euros per night and the Austrians at 106.90 euros nightly.

Greece and Spain were the leading choices for senior holidaymakers, who prefer to travel in the EU, where they spent two-thirds, or 66 percent of all their tourism nights with outbound tourism representing a third or 34 percent in 2014.

Meanwhile, 92 percent of Greece’s older travelers favored domestic holidays over outbound trips, together with residents of Spain at 94 percent, the Czech Republic and Romania at 89 percent, and Italy and Portugal at 88 percent.