Golden years, golden shores: A study of elders in online travel communities

• Published in: 2017 7th International Conference on Computer and Knowledge Engineering (ICCKE) pp. 199 - 204
• Main Authors: Balcerzak, Bartlomiej, Nielek, Radoslaw
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-10-2017
• Subjects: Aging; Data mining; Encoding; netnography; older adults; on-line communities; qualitative research; social media; Sociology; Statistics; text mining
• DOI: 10.1109/ICCKE.2017.8167875

In this paper we present our exploratory findings related to extracting knowledge and experiences from a community of senior tourists. By using tools of qualitative analysis as well as review of literature, we managed to verify a set of hypotheses related to the content created by senior tourists when participating in on-line communities. We also produced a codebook, representing various themes one may encounter in such communities. This codebook, derived from our own qualitative research, as well a literature review will serve as a basis for further development of automated tools of knowledge extraction. We also managed to find that older adults more often than other poster in tourists forums, mention their age in discussion, more often share their experiences and motivation to travel, however they do not differ in relation to describing barriers encountered while traveling.