Australian grey nomads and American snowbirds : similarities and differences

The Grey Nomad phenomenon is a growing one in Australia. Grey Nomads are defined within this paper as people aged over 50 years, who adopt an extended period of travel (at least 3 months) independently within their own country. They travel by caravan, motor-home, campervan or converted bus for at least three months, but often up to several years, moving around Australia. They are not part of any commercial tourist event. While it is difficult to establish accurate numbers, the Bureau of Tourism Research estimates that in a single year Australian retirees undertake approximately 200,000 caravan trips of more than six weeks duration (Carter, 2002). These numbers are likely to increase with the ageing population of Australia. The self drive market phenomena has become a huge market, particularly in North America with retirees known as "snowbirds" (McHugh & Mings, 1992; Vincent & De Los Santos, 1990). These "snowbirds" are seasonal migrants moving from the snow belt in northern U.S. and Canada to spend the winter n the southern states, particularly Arizona, Texas and Florida. While estimates of numbers vary, it is probably in the millions. For example, during the winter of 1993-1994 an estimated 220,000 retirees moved to Phoenix, Arizona, of which one third resided in Recreational Vehicle resorts (Mings & McHugh, 1995). Similarly the Rio Grande valley in Texas had some 66,000 Recreational Vehicle sites by 1990 (Vincent & De Los Santos, 1990). Clearly this forms a major segment of the post retiree recreational market. Snowbirds remain in the designated resort for up to four months. The literature raises a number of interesting questions. What are the motivational patterns of the Australian Grey Nomads? To what extent can the snowbird phenomena be imposed on the Australian self-drive market of retirees? Are we talking about the same phenomena or a different market segment? This paper reports the results of a qualitative study of Australian grey nomad travel motivation.