Cultural, Creative, and Religious Senior Travel: Evidence and Research on the City of Iași

Abstract The tourism industry is one of the most successful and offering industries considering the variations it has, and that is universally addressed to everyone, regardless of age, nationality, or gender. In this century, tourism for seniors has expanded at a significantly accelerated pace globally. Services for senior tourists are increasingly diversified globally, as well as in Romania, where this research is developed. Travel agencies are creating packages and special offers tailored to domestic and international seniors for circuits or pilgrimages. Nowadays, being a senior is no longer a shortcoming. They benefit from increased attention from travel agencies that provide more advantageous prices. This article deals with three tourism segments: cultural tourism, creative tourism, and religious tourism focusing on seniors. The purpose of the article is to find out, through the questionnaire method, the type of tourism practiced by senior Romanian tourists and the attraction factors in choosing the city of Iași as a tourist destination. The results of the study are relevant in that the tourism practiced by the senior respondents is pilgrimage tourism. Almost half of them chose religious tourist attractions as motivating factors to travel to Iași, and a notable event in this regard is the annual pilgrimage to Saint Parascheva. According to the questionnaire results, cultural tourism is practiced harmoniously with religious tourism. Therefore, the study contributes to the tourism field by extending our current knowledge of senior tourism and has implications for better organizing their travel.