Leveraging Travel as a Catalyst for Healthy Aging

Travel is a powerful catalyst for healthy longevity and it is the top retirement dream among people in the U.S. and around the world. A growing body of evidence-based research is finding that travel has the potential to transform aging in our modern society from a state of decline and dependence to a time of adventure and enrichment.

Leveraging Travel as a Catalyst for Healthy Aging, a collaboration between Transamerica Institute and the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA), provides a meta-analysis on the benefits of travel on people’s physical health, cognitive resilience, and social connection for healthy longevity. Beyond the individual level, travel has an untapped potential for driving business and economic growth across the travel industry, public health policy, retirement and financial services institutions, and the entire silver economy.

Transamerica Institute and GCOA convened leaders from across the travel, health, and aging sectors to examine the relationship between travel and healthy aging and travel’s critical role in promoting healthy aging across the life course. The premise of the roundtable was to amplify the relationship between travel and healthy aging and underscore the value it brings to the economy, workplace productivity and well-being, and retirement. Its aim was to uncover new ideas, research, and insights to provide strategic guidance for travelers, travel-related companies, financial services institutions, employers, and other stakeholders in the silver economy. 

Drawing on insights from this roundtable, this report distills strategic opportunities and recommendations for various stakeholders to maximize the transformative power of travel in our aging society – and, ultimately, to integrate an age-friendly travel experience around the world.

This travel roundtable report is an extension of a 2013 travel survey, Journey to Healthy Aging: Planning for Travel in Retirement, which identified a disconnect between people’s travel dreams and how they are (not) financial planning for it.