SILVER TOURISM AS A POSSIBLE FACTOR FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT. A CASE STUDY IN THE SOUTH-EAST REGION OF ROMANIA

Abstract

As a result of the growing ageing, senior tourists will become a powerful group in the near tourism future. According to this statement, our research asses that the silver tourism could represent, in the next years, a real instrument for the regional development. The aim of our study is to highlight the opportunity of capitalizing the aging phenomenon by the administrative institutions and local tour operators that might regenerate economically the southeast Romanian region. Methodologically, we used a survey based on two questionnaires. The first one was applied to a group of seniors enrolled at the University of Third Age Galati city. For now, this type of structure is unique in Romania.  The second questionnaire containing a single question was applied to four categories of actors possible to be responsible and/or involved in the developing regional tourism process. The results  reveals the connections existing between the main options of elderly and the forms of tourism developed at regional level, one the one hand, and the very minor attention paid by the local factors to it, on the other hand.