Fostering senior community-based cyclotourism using transmedia: a proposal

Abstract

The general decrease in fertility rates and the increase in longevity allow the incessant aging of the world population. Furthermore, senior citizens are becoming better consumers of tourism products, leading to the need to meet their context, demands, and preferences while avoiding overtourism. Although a boom is observed in this field, there is a lack of information and products that address cyclotourism, senior tourism and its impact on citizens’ well-being and formation of communities. Community-based tourism, alongside media convergence culture, relies on the use of information and communication tools to inform purchase decisions and reinforce the connections among people relative to both place-making and place-visiting. The purpose of this position paper is to discuss the potential of transmedia to foster participatory strategies in cyclotourism to encourage active aging. In specific, it proposes the delivery of an integrated cyclotourism experience targeted to senior citizens that result from the convergence of community-based, induced, and transmedia tourism.