The effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on third age tourism; The case of Alanya

Third age tourism, also known as elderly tourism, is the travel to different destinations for holiday purposes by individuals over a certain age who have completed their active working life. Different age sub-limits are used to define the age group in third age tourism and are defined as 50, 55, 60 and 65 in the literature. With the contribution of recent technological developments, human life has been extended. Especially in European countries, the absence of a young population indicates the existence of an aging population. The fact that European countries are cold in the winter months, the high cost of elderly care, etc. Considering such situations, it makes our country an advantageous country in the third age tourism. However, the COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in 2019 affected the elderly individuals the most, and many national and international destinations remained empty. There are researches such as stress, anxiety and fear caused by the pandemic in elderly individuals negatively affect the desire to travel. However, no research has been found on the effects of fear of Covid on travel satisfaction and travel motivation in elderly individuals. For this reason, the aim of the research we have planned is to determine the effects of coronavirus (Covid-19) on third age tourism. In this context, the relationship between the fear of covid-19, travel satisfaction and motivation of tourists who prefer our country within the scope of third age tourism was tried to be determined. The research is cross-sectional type. The data of the research were collected between 01.12.2022 and 30.02.2023. The population of the study consists of 428 tourists over the age of 65 who are mentally competent and who can understand and speak Turkish, English, Russian or German who visit Alanya and who agree to participate in the study. The minimum sample size of the study was determined as 384, which corresponds to a population of 1.000.000, with a prevalence of 50%, a margin of error of 5% and a level of error of 0.05. The study consists of individuals aged 65 years and over who can understand and speak Turkish, English, German and Russian. The data of the study were collected with 4 forms: "personal information form", "covid-19 fear scale", "travel motivation scale" and "travel satisfaction scale". The data were collected in English, Russian, German and Turkish by face-to-face questionnaire application method. Descriptive statistics and student t test, ANOVA test, correlation and multiple regression statistical analysis methods were used in the evaluation of the data. Of the participants, 45.3% were male, 54.7% were female, 45.8% were in the 65-69 age range (70.64 ± 4.47, (Min-Max 65-89)), 43.5% were married, 56.5% were single, 22.2% came from Russia. The mean covid fear scale of the participants is 15,359±6,611, the mean of travel motivation (attractive factors) is 3,960±0,579, the mean of travel motivation (repulsive factors) is 3,805±0,609 and the mean of travel satisfaction is 4,236±0,668. In the study, it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between travel satisfaction, age and child status; travel motivation, gender, marital status, social class, child status and having chronic disease; fear of covid, marital status, educational status, family status, social class, income status and alcohol use status (p<0.05). In addition, in the study, a positive correlation was determined between travel motivation and travel satisfaction, and there was no statistically significant relationship between fear of Covid and travel motivation and travel satisfaction. In conclusion, it is an important result of the study that travel satisfaction and travel motivation are not affected by fear of covid in third age tourism; however, travel satisfaction and travel motivation are related and some other socio-economic factors are determinant in travel motivation and travel satisfaction.