TRAVEL is the most popular holiday activity in the 21st century. With the massive boom in travel since COVID-19, it seems that everyone is packing a bag and heading somewhere else – just ask the residents of Barcelona and Venice.
Vulnerable groups, including travel-eligible tourists with medical conditions, such as early and mid-stage dementia, represent an emerging niche market in the tourism industry that has been largely overlooked. But that’s changing.
Australian-based tourism and hospitality specialist Dr Jun Wen at Edith Cowan University is working within a larger research project funded by the European Commission Horizon. Led by 12 internationally renowned scientists in disciplines spanning neurology, public health, epidemiology, dementia, eHealth and lifestyle intervention, the project is ultimately working towards developing mobile phone applications for dementia prevention and treatment.
Leading his own team within the wider project, Dr Wen has been exploring what travellers and their carers or travelling companions need, the benefits and what the tourism and hospitality industry can do for them.
By 2050 it’s estimated 153 million people across the world will have dementia, a portion of whom will want, and be able, to travel. The group’s research to date, shows tourism and travel is a viable dementia intervention. It satisfies a number of suggested actions around living well with dementia, such as staying socially and physically active.
The research – the first of its kind since starting in 2020 – addresses the potential relationship between travel and the medical treatment of dementia. Practically, the growing number of people with dementia embodies an emerging, vulnerable tourist group.
“Our work is presenting a possible way to improve dementia patient wellbeing that can sit side-by-side with other non-pharmacological interventions,” says Dr Wen about his team’s research. “This unique research team is working in both health and science, with an integrated expertise in tourism marketing, tourist behaviour, psychology and dementia intervention treatment.”
Most dementia patients are aged 65 and over. The global cost of the condition is estimated to be US $1313.4 billion for 55.2 million people, so alternative, cost-effective care is needed.
“While not all patients will be able to engage in tourism activities, it will be suitable for certain dementia stages. Optimal quality of life is the main objective of long-term dementia care – and travel can contribute to that, at least in the early stages.”
Dr Wen considers tourism a supplement to conventional dementia interventions because day trips and holidays can afford dementia patients relaxing and memorable experiences that stimulate neurological function.
Linking tourism experiences and dementia interventions could also enrich the social and medical science literature, namely by outlining innovative methods to cater to the market. Tourism can then be leveraged as an avenue to improve quality of life and symptoms for people with dementia.
Research directions for the team have and will include examining travel demands, constraints, behaviours and safety for tourists and caregivers, what tourism suppliers have on offer, and what kind of tourism interventions can bring the two groups together.
The US, UK and Australia have produced guides to dementia-friendly travel. They include first-hand accounts, what to expect before, during and after a trip, as well as suitable attractions. There is also help for businesses that want to help or attract customers in this group.
Destinations that invest in becoming more friendly to these vulnerable travellers will have the edge. They have the potential and opportunity to become destinations of choice within these niche markets and the quick adopters might well gather great loyalty and regular return customers, even if it’s short-lived.
Travel as therapy has already reshaped the industry. For generations, people have been going to India to find their yogic bliss and in the past decade wellbeing holidays featuring activities such as yoga, ice baths, meditation, cooking and ‘finding yourself’ have become hugely popular.
As the number of people with dementia grows, the team hopes this kind of travel medicine will become more common and more people with dementia will be brave enough to travel, knowing their needs will be met. The more people who remain active travellers into their later decades, the more it reshapes the experience of ageing as active and engaged rather than sedentary and isolated.
“We also believe the rise of interest in supporting travellers with dementia and other vulnerable populations can play a role in public health. To date, they have largely been neglected in tourism literature and industry compared with typical tourists,” Dr Wen said.
“While tourism scholars have explored the effects of movement-based tourism engagement, such as yoga, on typical traveller wellbeing, few have considered the engagement of vulnerable populations, such as tourists with disability. These visitors remain an obscure segment both statistically and economically. Travellers with dementia are one such understudied market.”
Vacationing boosts a traveller’s physical and psychological wellbeing. The study continues to explore the potential impacts of tourism engagement on dementia patient wellbeing by investigating travel as a non-pharmacological aspect of dementia treatment. Travelling offers one possible way to improve wellbeing – dementia hampers life participation, including leisure, and travel can change that.
“Travelling stimulates thought, knowledge and recall. Someone with mild to moderate dementia can take part in activities which expose them to new things, such as sightseeing and communing with nature. Taking photos serves as a reminder and, once home, an opportunity to reminisce,” says Dr Wen.
“These opportunities can facilitate thinking, concentration and memory, especially when interacting with caregivers and other tourists. Overall, trip-related outcomes can alter brain function and improve individual cognition.
“Travel exposes dementia patients to a novel environment away from home. This new built environment can allow tourists to experience new emotions, moods and other reactions which stimulate brain function and enable them to process new information. Dementia patients’ tourism engagement may also alter their behaviour through increased social interaction in a fresh environment.”
Like other typical tourists, travel affords them unique experiences. Although some travel situations can evoke stress among some dementia patients, the stimulation of brain function is key to maintaining health. Dr Wen says tourism experiences can thus potentially mitigate a dementia patient’s disease progression when undertaken with specialist guidance.
“The team proposes tourism-focused positive psychology interventions that may be applicable to dementia patients and family caregivers,” says Dr Wen.
During travel, meal times can fulfil patient needs by increasing interactions, altering behaviours and providing a daily anchor. Travelling involves transportation and physical activity that can enhance neurological function. Using and exposing the senses can do the same thing – consider the smells of cooking food from street stalls in Hong Kong versus the tang of the ocean at a beach resort.
Massage, aromatherapy, music and animal-related activities could also benefit dementia patients during travel. Specially designed sensory activities can offer unique experiences for tourists with dementia, such as an art gallery or sensory garden. Music, for example, creates an emotive narrative for travellers. It exemplifies culture, heritage, a place and time. Just like the music of your teenage years can bring back memories, so can music linked to a certain holiday.
The team is also looking into whether travelling with an animal or pet can have a positive effect. Another piece of research team members have done is interviewing Chinese hotel guests with dementia and hotel managers about their needs and services. While the study was small, the results reveal hotel guests choose to hide their early-stage dementia to avoid discrimination and low expectations of support. They also say they prefer rooms away from the active areas of the hotel – pool, bar, lobby – wanting quiet rooms with limited interaction, even with hotel staff.
“While travel can’t prevent dementia any more than other general measures, this ground-breaking research is certainly proving that it can contribute to a rich life in your later years.”
Ara Jansen is a Perth-based freelance print journalist with more than 35 years’ experience. A highly skilled interviewer, she writes for government and corporate clients as well as magazines and newspapers. She’s a regular commentator on radio, talking about music and culture thanks to a passion for music and decades working as a music editor and rock journalist.
