Tourism and older residents in a sunbelt resort

The trend towards an aging population and prolong ed life-span in Australia is reflected in the: increased popularity of post-retirement mig-ration to coastal communities. With the unprecedented growth of tourism in these areas, the question of how its impact affects older residents is becoming increasingly important for the industry and urban planners. Intuitively, there are grounds for arguing that this population is more likely to be negatively imparted by tourism than younger residents. A survey of Gold Coast (Australia) residents was carried out to test this hypothesis. Contrary to expectations the results revealed that older residents are generally as favorably disposed to tourism as their younger counterparts.