Consumer Research and Programs for the Elderly—The Forgotten Dimension

Older Americans are the most victimized and disadvantaged group in the marketplace, yet few consumer research, education, and action programs have focused on their needs and concerns. This study, by attempting to summarize existing knowledge of the consumer problems and needs of older persons, reveals the lack of reliable data and research. The study also suggests that inflation has a far worse impact upon the elderly than previously thought, affecting not only their retirement financial condition but also their psychological and social condition. The study concludes that traditional consumer education programs focusing only upon persons' poverty of means will be ineffective unless they include an additional focus on the poverty of meaning in the lives of older consumers.     

Validating the international tourist role scale

This study was designed to validate the international tourist role scale and the three dimensions it revealed. The purpose of this attitudinal scale was to measure the tourist role typology. United States adult outbound tourists flying with 11 major airlines returned useful questionnaires. This study validated the role scale as a reliable one that properly identified three conceptual dimensions of international tourist typology and successfully provided measures of tourists’ novelty-seeking preferences on the three dimensions. The study demonstrated, however, that the scale would measure the novelty-seeking preferences of international tourists more effectively if it were supplemented by other measures.