This article aims to examine patterns of innovation in older adults' tourism, and to explore whether innovation is associated with the benefits gained from the overall tourism experience. The study was based on a national mail survey of 298 retirees, who travelled abroad at least once in the year prior to the survey. Results indicated that participants' involvement in new experiences during their last travel abroad was quite high. Factor analysis of new experiences data identified two factors: ‘external innovation’, which included experiences that were associated with the external environment visited; and ‘internal innovation’, which consisted of experiences that were associated with some intrapersonal processes. Cluster analysis conducted on the new experiences' factors identified three groups of older tourists: non-innovators, external innovators and absolute innovators. These groups were differentiated in terms of travel patterns and destination activities. In addition, the absolute innovators reported a significantly higher level of agreement with various benefits statements than the other groups. Examining the findings through the lenses of the Innovation Theory of Successful Ageing helps to explain older adults' tourism experiences. Moreover, since the findings imply that experiencing ‘internal innovation’, rather than ‘external innovation’, amplified their overall tourism experience, this article suggests a new principle to the theory, which should be tested in future research.

A central theme of ‘innovation theory’, which the author and a colleague have proposed and which is concerned with the triggers, types and benefits of innovation in later life, is that adding brand-new leisure activities after retiring from work enhances post-retirement wellbeing. The study reported in this article aimed to examine this proposition using quantitative data from a nationwide sample in Israel of 378 recently retired individuals. The study explored the frequency of post-retirement innovation in people's leisure repertoires, the association between innovation and retirees' life satisfaction, and factors in the differing life satisfaction of innovators and non-innovators. The results indicate that the inclination toward innovation significantly associated with the respondents' work and retirement histories, as well as with their self-rated health and world region of origin. Innovators had significantly higher life satisfaction than non-innovators, but this difference could not be explained by the number of new activities. In addition, socio-demographic differences failed to explain innovators' wellbeing. While some support for innovation theory was provided, further research is required to explore the dynamics by which innovation at older ages contributes to retirees' wellbeing.