Barriers to tourist activity in the assessments of the senior generation (based on an empirical study in the Rostov region)

The author assesses the level of tourist activity of the senior generation and analyzes the factors of its formation and the barriers that hinder the tourist practices of people over 60 years of age. Based on the materials of an empirical study conducted in 2022 in the Rostov region using the methods of in-depth interviews and a mass questionnaire survey, it is shown that a third of the respondents of the senior generation (35.1 %) is included in the tourist exclusion group (they do not travel for 5 years or more) due to the existence of a number of subjective and objective barriers that are perceived by senior people as insurmountable, especially in the absence of tourist travel experience in previous years. Economic, digital, age inequality (ageism), inequality in the field of health determine the decrease in the opportunities of the senior generation in the implementation of tourism practices, and the unstable political and epidemiological situation further complicate the development of tourism activity of this group. Overcoming these barriers and increasing tourist activity will improve the social well-being of the senior generation, increase the duration of active life in Russia.