By Rieva Lesonsky
While everyone is buzzing about Millennials and the many opportunities there are to serve them, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of ways to make money focusing on other generations. Take the Baby Boomers. (Yes, I’m one of them.) Just because we’re aging—Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964—doesn’t mean we don’t have money to spend. Just the opposite, actually.
Recently the Engage: Boomers blog on MediaPost talked about how powerful a market Boomers are, noting that Americans age 50+ are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.
The blog says Boomers will not only impact industries that “already serve older consumers, such as health and finance,” but their changing needs will also affect other types of businesses.
Take employment agencies, for instance. While conventional wisdom might say Boomers are all looking forward to retirement, that’s the old way of thinking. Today, as Engage: Boomers says, many Boomers “continue to seek new work opportunities.” And a survey taken last year by CareerBuilder reported nearly 60 percent of private-sector businesses intended to hire seniors this year, which, says the blog, creates “a greater need for job placement and training services for older workers.”
Another market that’s certain to start booming (pardon the pun) is travel. Many of the Boomers who aren’t continuing to work are apt to travel, providing, as Engage: Boomers notes, “growth opportunities for many in the travel industry.” The blog says, “The market of retirement travelers will grow by 36 percent over the next 10 years” and notes that “retired travelers spend 12 percent more than employed travelers on domestic vacations and 23 percent more on foreign vacations.”
Be sure to check out the Engage: Boomers blog to get the scoop on the other industries benefiting from catering to Boomers.