Living Arrangements and Senior Tourism Consumption in China:  An Empirical Study Based on CLASS Data

By the end of 2024, adults aged 60 and above constituted 22.0% of China’s total population. Sustained mortality declines and shrinking household sizes have produced an unprecedented rise in empty-nest elders, yet the extent to which living arrangements shape later-life tourism expenditure remains under-examined. Using data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS) spanning 2014 to 2020, this study employs two-way fixed effects models and instrumental variable approaches to analyze the effect of living arrangements on tourism spending by older adults. The results show that, compared with older adults co-residing with their children, those in empty-nest households allocate 2.9% less of total household expenditure to tourism and the logarithm value of the average tourism expenditure of empty-nest older adults is 41.8% lower. Mechanism analyses indicate that the effect operates through four channels: deteriorated physical health, weakened intergenerational financial transfers, contracted kin networks, and widened digital divide. Heterogeneous effects are pronounced among elders with low education level, non-homeowners, and children with low educational attainment. The findings extend the life-cycle consumption literature by foregrounding family structure as a key constraint on discretionary expenditure in ageing societies, and inform policy efforts to expand the silver tourism market, enhance elderly well-being, and mitigate the economic pressures of population ageing.