STIMULATE Project

Questionnaire addressed to seniors in order to improve useful assistance services for mobility and travel, through use of digital devices and technology.

With whom do you go on vacation?

Three categories of response:

-- with one’s spouse, children, a member of the family
-- alone
-- with friends

In general, a senior alone may either: travel alone, hoping to find someone on site with whom to share time during their trip, or; decide upon an interesting destination and find someone within their circle of friends and family and convince them to travel with them.

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If a senior is still in a couple situation, it's a family trip, with travel options and destination a common affair.

What takes precedence: the person with whom you are travelling or the destination?

Seniors may travel with former colleagues. Communities which develop over the course of one’s professional life are places to find friends with whom to travel.

The subjective significance or value of the destination may take precedence over specific travel partners. It's about the particular reason for wanting to travel. Why this country and not another? “A childhood dream”.

Advice proferred in a travel agency can help with destination selection, provide assurance and instill confidence regarding destination, transport, accommodation, etc.

Organised tours are not for the majority of participants. Too many time constraints. Too rushed. Preference for clubs where one remains put and can benefit most. Optional activities not of essential importance to the trip. A network of people who can invite strangers is a way to choose a destination.

Is the language barrier a major obstacle to travel?
Language is not an insurmountable barrier. One can get by with basic English and sign language. No use of the Internet for translation.

Can you define a list of priorities for planning your vacation (from 1 to 10)?

1 Price
2 Length of stay (how long I leave my house unattended)
3 Climate | Weather | Optimal Season

4 Hotel facilities | Comfort
5 Contact with local populations | Projects with locals

6 Ecological footprint
7 Transportation resources | On-site mobility (bus, train, local transport and specific characteristics/requirements)
8 On-site health care (if heart attack, what hospital facilities on site?)
9 Projects on site | unconventional/alternative activities
10 The attractiveness of the destination. A childhood dream...

Which measures for booking transport?

For travel in France:

By train: For organising trips, seniors prefer the human contact at agencies or SNCF ticket windows/counters, especially for non-TGV (non high-speed) trains. Information thus provided is more precise, tailored and reliable (for ex., re switches, combinations, explanations to get one’s bearings, etc.) Internet ranks as a second choice only because it is too general.

Internet-organized travel

Carpooling (www.covoiturage.com | www.allostop.net). However, one must have time to use this type of transport. The combination "go by train, return by car" seems the best solution. It’s a nice way to travel because it’s a way to meet people.

For a trip to another country
The first impulse is to check out the low cost companies on the Internet in order to get an idea of prices and airlines serving the chosen destination (www.edreams.fr | www.bravofly.fr | www.kayak.com). For simple flight tickets, the main criteria are price and schedule. Warning: beware of hidden options! Sometimes a price comparison is made with the price on the official website of a pre-selected company. Nonetheless, the travel-agent relationship remains of prime importance. According to the online survey, seniors go in person to the travel agency in order to confirm all the details.

Focus on IDTGV
The comfort provided by this service: a quiet space to work or one for socialising. It’s quite important to be able to choose the environment in which one wishes to travel.

Bad trip-planning experiences on the Internet
Travel ticket reservations billed/debited twice.

A train ticket booked for the month of November when it was supposed to be for December.
Hotel prices coupled with train or flight tickets are often more expensive than when booking the hotel separately.

To what extent do you think such a system can help you plan your holiday?

Facilitator remarks:
Understanding the diagram is difficult. The seniors who met for the Stimulate workshop are used to looking on the Internet for information about trips and vacations. The TV is suitable for watching TV shows. The evolution of uses related to the TV is more difficult to conceive because it is older.

Television is mostly used today to watch broadcast programs. Some of the seniors who were present use their modem box to record programs. Only one uses the TV screen to view photos.

Only four of those present have a smartphone. The use of downloadable applications has not entered into common practice.

The Stimulate project diagram as presented did not incur a favorable response. The only advantage would be to increase the size of the screen for better viewing.

Can you imagine using your TV to plan your vacation, find information about new places or create a vacationer-specific profile for yourself?

The idea of creating a vacationer profile is considered unusual. This question was quickly left aside.

A consensus was made for an ideal combination: pre-booking one’s trip on the Internet or TV, sending the contract by mail and validating it by return mail.

The major disadvantage of the TV is that one cannot print documents from this device.

What one would like to find on a TV, Internet or Smartphone device:
All personal services in detail: taxi prices, places to find various modes of transport, porters and phone numbers, the correct times, real-time construction delay info., modifications of itineraries, ramps and lifts for people with reduced mobility, escalators which are out-of-order, actual travel times, emergency phone numbers, etc.

Various warnings: safe drinking water or not, local vegetables edible or not, etc.
Reliability rating system for a country's healthcare network.

What type of information would you like to see on the television in order to plan your vacation?
The same as on already-existing Internet websites:
- Price
- Destination
- Schedule

Televisions make for more comfortable viewing, if the information is well-organised.

What is off-putting about the Internet?
The manner of reading. There is too much to take in. It's too unstructured.
The direction of reading from left to right is not respected. One never looks where one should. Too much information.

When one goes to an agency, the agent sums up purchase-related information to the client before confirming the purchase. With the Internet, anxiety arises from having to repeatedly confirm one’s order, while hoping not to make mistakes.

Can you imagine using a mobile device to obtain assistance during your vacation?
Overall, the answer is no. Trips are prepared upstream and not on site. The cost of a smartphone remains a major obstacle. Also, there are health-related fears (radio waves can cause brain damage). Compatibility of international package deals remains a question mark and an obstacle to the idea of using the smartphone as an assistance tool in a foreign country.

Here again, reference to a catalog to prepare one’s trip in detail is the most reassuring and agreed-upon solution.

Calling the consulate is also common practice in order to obtain information about current risks and health conditions in the country visited (http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/conseils-aux-voyageurs_909/index.html ).

The Lonely Planet travel guide is identified as a tool for preparing one’s trips – a work of reference in its field.

What importance do you attach to the exchange of information about your trip? What restitution and how?

Little practice and use of.
Only one senior keeps their photos to view them on the TV.
An idea: to have a tool which enables users to improve the Stimulate service – that everyone can criticize the information disseminated by Stimulate in order to keep it up to date.