Hi, I’m Allan.
Retired radio guy. Travel addict. Dreamer.
“What qualifies a retired radio presenter at the bottom end of Africa to set a global suitability standard for senior travellers?”
Fair question. Living with an unanticipated onset of osteoarthritis and restricted mobility in my early sixties has shown me how easily travel becomes a physical struggle. Hidden steps, gaps in transit information, uncertainty about nearby medical care and poorly designed town centres can turn a holiday into hard work.
I looked for a reliable, objective way to judge whether destinations were ready for travellers aged 60 and older. To my surprise, I found none. Marketing blurbs offered vague labels like “great for retirees”; accessibility reviews checked legal compliance, not how comfortable a trip would actually be.
After almost 40 years of travel, I wanted to continue discovering memorable places without having to plan around every obstacle. I thought: “What if this can be done by someone else?” I consider myself marginally tech-savvy, so I decided to be the “someone else” and develop the Mature Miles Index myself. After endless methodology rewrites, it finally came together.
Experience behind the method
I was under no illusion that a global ranking system needed clear standards, accuracy and accountability. Two decades in consumer media taught me what travellers need to know and how to earn their trust. More than a decade as a boutique hotel owner and head chef gave me practical experience of what hospitality actually involves.
To keep personal judgement out of the scores, I built the MMI Charter and Rulebook around just five core infrastructure categories: Health & Safety, Getting Around, Cost, Climate, and Things to Do. These are the things that matter most to us “oldies”.
To save me hundreds of hours in front of a screen, I experimented with AI to collect, cross-check and process datasets from authoritative bodies worldwide, including UN Tourism. It worked. After everything was collated and cross-checked, I set the rules that govern every metric.
The specific goal: make MMI an independent infrastructure audit. It asks destinations seeking to welcome a highly flexible, affluent group of travellers to back their promises with verified evidence.
Join me in making sure senior travellers’ needs are met — and that they’ll support those destinations that make the effort.
Allan