Developing Dementia-Friendly Tourism Destinations: An Exploratory Analysis. (July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Page, Stephen J.; Innes, Anthea; Cutler, Clare
• Is Part Of: Journal of travel research. Volume 54:Number 4(2015:Jul.)
• Page Start: 467
• Page End: 481
• Publication Date: 2015-07
• Subjects: dementia -- dementia-friendly tourism -- health and tourism -- destination management -- Bournemouth; Travel -- Research -- Periodicals; Tourism -- Periodicals; Tourism -- Research -- Periodicals; 910.72
• DOI: 10.1177/0047287514522881
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0047-2875

Abstract

Dementia is emerging as a global issue. Increases in life expectancy create an older population structure with accompanying health needs but also high lifestyle expectations. For example existing generations have come to expect to be able to participate in leisure and tourism activities in later life, which can be constrained by the onset of dementia. Leading healthy lifestyles and engaging in tourism activities are viewed as fundamental to remaining active and contributing to slowing the progress of dementia. This study is the first to examine the challenges and implications of the growing scale of dementia and the business opportunities this may create for destinations wishing to achieve dementia-friendly status. The paper reports results from an initial scoping study with tourism businesses in a coastal resort in the United Kingdom with such ambitions to assess the nature of the issues that arose from a series of face-to-face interviews.