The Current State of Senior Tourism Research: A Focused Narrative Review

Research on senior tourism now goes beyond market profiling to consider participation, well-being, and inclusion. This focused narrative review looks at ten peer-reviewed English-language articles published between 2018 and 2026, identified through targeted DOI and publisher-platform searches. The evidence is organised around four themes: travel motivation, constraints and negotiation, well-being, and digital inclusion. The reviewed studies show that older tourists are not a single market segment. Their travel decisions vary with health, income, life-course transitions, social support, previous experience, and confidence with technology. Tourism may support subjective and social well-being, but the direction of this relationship remains uncertain because most studies are cross-sectional and context-specific. Taken together, the four themes point to a participation pathway from motivation to constraint negotiation, experience, and outcomes. Accessible environments, personal assistance, and non-digital alternatives matter throughout this pathway. The review argues that age-friendly tourism should be judged by whether older adults can participate independently and meaningfully, rather than by the availability of senior-labelled products alone.