Group lifestyle mobilities: understanding Chinese senior long-stay tourists in rural destinations

Huan Huang, Scott Cohen and Jiaying Lyu

Current Issues in Tourism, 2025, vol. 28, issue 14, 2299-2312

Abstract: Existing work on senior lifestyle mobilities in China has predominantly focused on therapeutic landscape imaginaries and second-home cities. This paper shifts the focus to the group-oriented lifestyle pursuits of Chinese urban seniors who temporarily reside in rural areas for extended vacations. By interviewing Chinese senior long-stay tourists in rural destinations, this study examines how their decisions to engage in long-stay tourism are driven by the quest for a communal leisure lifestyle characterised by group living routines and a sense of camaraderie. Our findings highlight the role of geo-arbitrage in facilitating and accommodating these group-oriented mobility patterns among senior tourists. Yet, their mobile later life experiences are also marked by precariousness and vulnerability due to individual and group-level health decline, as well as the disparities in senior care services between urban and rural regions in China.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2024.2370381

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