Adventure travel for retirees: Hong Kong agencies tailor trips for silver-haired globetrotters as their numbers rise
Senior citizens are packing up and heading off in growing numbers to remote destinations such as Greenland, Bhutan and Antarctica for bucket-list trips and adventures
For nomadic grandmother of four Geraldine Ann Forster, age is no barrier to adventure.
“Seventy is the new 50,” says the 73-year-old, who bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok on her retirement eight years ago and has been backpacking across the globe ever since. “Nowadays we are more liberated, younger.”
During her adventures in more than 50 countries she has shared a dorm with 40 people on Fiji’s Mana Island, paraglided in Nepal, camped alone on a remote Cambodian island and endured a 16-hour bus trip from Udaipur to Mumbai, in India. The Briton is just one of a rising number of globetrotting senior citizens.
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A recent study by FUR Forecasts in Germany predicted that by 2025, 60- to 69-year-olds will account for 17 per cent of holidays worldwide, compared with the current 14 per cent. Travel by those aged 70 and above will grow from 16 per cent to 19 per cent of the market.
Doug Vogel, 72, who has lived in Hong Kong for 15 years, has been ticking off adventures with his wife Johanna, 75, since they retired. Their travels have included getting off the beaten track in Greenland, holidaying on Tanzania’s game-rich plains, exploring Antarctica and a taking trip to the Galapagos Islands.
Vogel says his passion for travel and nature, combined with a curiosity about the world, have spurred him to get out there. “A lot of seniors are travelling and taking more adventurous trips than before. I suspect the reason is a combination of money, good health and attractive offerings from agents.”