Developing a New Business Model for the Latin-American Tourism Sector. A Proposal for a Senior Hostel Chain in Mexico

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,1, Pforzheim University, language: English, abstract: As one of the largest and most important economic sectors, the tourism industry is facing global growth and increasing tourist arrivals in many regions of the world (World Tourism Organization UNWTO, 2018). However, since technologies, lifestyles and travel behaviors of people are constantly changing, tourism business have to consider those developments and adapt their activities and offers to the current needs of customers. One emerging tendency in the travel industry, that builds the focus of this thesis, is the so-called "Senior Tourism". The increasing willingness and ability of elderly people to go on vacations offers many opportunities and promising perspectives to businesses in the tourism sector. Those developments underline the importance for companies to restructure and reconsider their strategies in order to grow and remain successful in the tourism sector.This thesis presents one proposal for a business model which focusses on this current trend of senior travelers and their specific needs and requirements regarding a holiday accommodation. An extensive literature review complemented by an empirical analysis was conducted to obtain and analyze customer behaviors, factors that influence their decisions and requirements of the target consumers, hence this paper shows off how a hostel can set itself apart from competitors and be successful addressing a particular type of customers, namely elderly people.