Boomer travel trends in 2024

If you can believe it, spring is here! And with that, so come the glorious bank and summer holidays. According to our calendars anyway (maybe not from what you’re seeing outside your window).

At The Nursery, we know the significance of holidays for people. So we were delighted to be invited back to speak at the 101 Holidays Member Conference on the 20th March. Emma Harries and I presented some of our Identity Series findings all about Baby Boomers.

We know Baby Boomers are set to live 20 years longer than their parents, financially secure, and majority of this being in their ‘retirement’ which we successfully argued needs rebranding!

It was wonderful to share a picture of life for Baby Boomers at the moment, which we started with a juicy quiz to test our audience on just how well they know this audience (and for some people, themselves). We also divulged into our case for all the positives associated with ‘retirement’ rather than reeling over negatives.

Although most of us look forward to not working, retiring is a dramatic shift in our lives which Baby Boomers can struggle to adjust to. Particularly as for this audience, working is an important part of their identity and purpose, more so than younger generations. In reality, there is an abundance of freedom at their fingertips and a renowned sense of exploration and escape from everyday lives.

It was great to chat to members afterwards and to hear how resonant the findings are. For this generation, leaving work is an opportunity to level up their lives and travel plays a huge part of this with more people in their sixties taking gap years, and adventurous holidays (even more so than younger people!). It’s not just about relaxing on the beach, but engaging in active development and learning.

Rather than seeing retirement as a period in which people lose purpose because of not being a part of the machine any longer, it is a time to revel in no more ‘Sunday scaries’ (this feeling never gets old) and feeling smug about taking month long holidays whilst others can only take 1 to 2 weeks.

Zara Marouf, Senior Research Executive

If you would like to know more about the Identity Series at The Nursery, please visit hello@the-nursery.net