The primary purpose of this study is to examine the missing links between elderly tourists' quality of life and their travel motivation. Moreover, the study assumes that the elderly tourist's overall quality of life is affected by five important life domain satisfactions: family life, health life, emotional well-being, material well-being, and leisure life by applying bottom-up spillover theory. Using a sample drawn from retired persons over the age of 65 in South Korea, a structural equation modeling approach was used to identify the relevant relationships between the five life domain satisfactions, overall quality of life, and travel motivation. The results reveal that satisfaction with family, health, emotional state, and leisure life positively influences satisfaction with overall quality of life. Overall quality of life is positively related to travel motivation in the elderly.