The information age and the information society have become dominant features in the newm illennium.H owever,t heset ermsa reo ften referredt o with the youngerg enerations in mind,n eglectingth e older andm oree xperiencemd emberso f our society. This thesis focuses on the 'Grey Market' (travellers over the age of 50) who use the Internet on a regular basis - therefore also referred to as 'Silver Surfers' - and in particularf or their travel and tourism decision-makingI.t aims to identify experiences andp rocesseosf travel decision-makinga,n alyseth e impacto n the useo f the Interneta s an informations earcha s well as evaluateth e effectivenesos f the Interneti n providing informationf or particulara ndn ot mainstreamm arkets egments. The methodologye mployedi n this particularp iece of researchb uilds on positivisma s most consumerb ehaviourt heoriesd o; howevera more inductivea pproachw as taken. While relying on existingt heoriesn ewera nd lessw ell testedm ethodso f datac ollection were put to use.T he methodsw ere triangulatedu, tilising bothq uantitativea ndq ualitative research methods which complement each other in the results. An initial pilot study questionnairwe asf ollowedu p with semi-structureidn -depthi nterviewsw hich thenl edt o the completiono f the final survey,t hat was administeredb y 'e-surveying'u sing both conveniencea nd snowballs amplinga nd resultedi n 517 valid responsesfr om 'Silver Surfers' around the United Kingdom. Main findings of this thesiss how a distinct patterno f behaviourin the travel decisionmaking process of this particular market segment as well as what kind of information they were researchingo n the Internet.M ost importantly,t he respondentdso not consider themselvesto o different from other (younger)a geg roupsa nde vent houghs omeo f their informationr equirementsa re distinctive,t hey do not want to be consideredju st as 'the older consumers'.

Background The development of the Internet has changed the direction of advertising. Personalised advertising has emerged as the most effective and most profitable form of advertisement. Although personalised advertisement has been praised by many, privacy related concerns have been raised since it can be perceived as a violation of the consumer's privacy. Online shopping is another activity growing on the Internet, which also raises concerns about privacy. Therefore, we find it interesting to look on how personalised advertisement in relation to privacy issues can affect the consumer when buying online. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how online shoppers respond to privacy issues and personalised advertising. The research will focus on the shoppers’ perspective of privacy issues with personalised advertising online. It will also provide companies with useful insights into customer behaviour when shopping online, with the intention of evaluating various forms of personalised advertisement and their effectiveness in order to strengthen companies’ online personalised marketing campaigns. Method As multiple explanations to one and the same research question are sought, the research will be conducted from an interpretivist standpoint. A qualitative research method has been chosen in the form of twelve semi-structured interviews with individuals who have been residents of Sweden for more than six months, with a wide range of ages and an equal representation of the male and female gender. The empirical findings will be analysed based on the grounded theory where common themes based on similarities will be presented. Conclusion It was concluded that the attitudes towards personalised advertisement, privacy issues and its effect on buying behaviour depends on where the advertisement comes from as well as from where the individual is shopping. Furthermore, it was also found that although privacy concerns were raised it did not prevent individuals from continuing to purchase online, only from what sites the purchasing was conducted.