The website is offering firms the opportunity to use two research services as well as public and in-house training packages.

Managing director Debbie Marshall said: “There are 20 million people aged 50 and over in this country and the good news is that they love travelling. But often they are not understood by younger marketing teams who may lack empathy with older people and then wonder why sometimes their communications fail.”

The reviews and advice site is aiming to give the industry a better understanding of how the mature travel market researches and purchases holidays as well as how travel firms can market more successfully to the demographic.

Silver Travel Advisor’s research service will enable products, services and marketing communications to be tested through target audiences and branded surveys.

Training workshops have been created to “inform, educate, energise and excite” travel marketers about the importance of the over-50s sector, Silver Travel Advisor added.

The company said it wanted to “particularly” engage younger professionals within the industry and highlight the “enormous potential” the over-50s demographic could offer.

The new division will be headed by Jane Silk, former editor of the magazine, Mature Times.

Silk added “We see so many professional marketers who base their knowledge of the over-50s on a tiny sample size and that is what they think they know about their parents and grandparents.

“However they see them, they don’t really appreciate what a very diverse audience the older market is and what careful segmentation it requires.”