Forget the bucket-list backpacker and gap-year globetrotter of old: tomorrow’s jet-setting tourist is likely to look more like your grandparents.

A new International Travel Insights report by Visa has forecasted an 80 per cent surge in travel by Australians over the age of 65 over the course of the next decade, to almost two million trips a year.

The trend won’t be limited to Australians, either. Retirees the world over are in the same boat. (Or should that be on the same flight?) According to the report, by 2025, one in eight international trips will be taken by retirees, who are better off physically and financially than previous generations and are itching to strike out and see the world.

“What will emerge is an expanding ‘travelling class’ that will spend a growing portion of their household income on cross-border travel,” said Visa Chief Economist Wayne Best. “Tomorrow’s travelling class will likely be older and hail from emerging markets, looking very different from today’s typical international traveller.”

Australians of all ages are hitting the road in record numbers. According to Tourism Research Australia, which recently released its latest round of forecasts, the number of Australians heading abroad will top 10 million next year and exceed 13 million by 2024-25. Average Australian household expenditure on travel is expected to rise from $7069 a year to $8430 in the same period, well above the world average of $6874.

Meanwhile, the rise of Asia’s “travelling class” will see international visitor numbers to Australia explode. Australian Tourism Export Council Managing Director Peter Shelley said Chinese visitors were now growing at such a rate they would overtake New Zealand arrivals in 2018, two years earlier than expected.

The Chinese are expected to spend $335 billion a year on travel by 2025, almost double that of US travellers at $176 billion.