By 2025, India’s elderly may outnumber youth at globetrotting

According to the findings, international trips taken by Indians aged more than 65 years is likely to touch 9,67,000 in 2025 from 3,33,000 in 2015 — a spike of 193%.

India’s elderly population is likely to beat the younger generation in globe trotting by 2025, projected a global study.

While a section of elderly travellers took leisure trips to celebrate retired life many would combine them with medical treatments abroad.(Pic for Representation)

Payments technology company Visa estimated the number of households that took foreign trips based on at least one face-to-face card transaction in another country versus the population of all active Visa-branded cardholders in a country.

The figures were then considered to be representative of an entire country’s population regardless of payment methods used by these travellers.

Oxford Economics, which partnered in the study with Visa, then fed the patterns as an input for a forecast it developed for the report. According to the findings, international trips taken by Indians aged more than 65 years is likely to touch 9,67,000 in 2025 from 3,33,000 in 2015 — a spike of 193%.

Even at a year-on-year growth of 11.4% foreign trips for the country’s silver club is set to grow at almost more than double the younger generation, the study added. While travellers aged less than 34 years are projected to see 4.9% growth in international travel those between 34 and 64 years are set to increase at 6.4%, it added.

“The growing income level among the Indian middle class is creating a new “travelling class”. That combined with the preference for outbound travel of Indians above 65 years and increased connectivity is changing the outbound travel landscape in a very different way. Unlike earlier, older travellers can afford bigger trips and are more focused on comfort and health over saving money,” said T R Ramachandran, group country manager, India and South Asia, Visa.

The report added that while a section of elderly travellers took leisure trips to celebrate retired life many would combine them with medical treatments abroad.

According to the study, India ranked 4th in the Asia Pacific and 9th in the world when it came to cross border medical spends.

Globally, sunset club travellers are likely to more than double their international travel by touching 180 million trips, accounting for one in eight foreign trips in the world.

The study concluded that 282 million households in the world would plan at least one foreign holiday in a year by 2025, a spike of 35% as compared to 2015. The average spends per household is likely to be 5,305 USD.