Elderly populations play important roles in society as providers of historical accounts, wisdom, culture, traditions, and social customs. As elderly people generally remain physically, mentally, and intellectually healthy, encouraging them to preserve and share their local identity through English language communication is one strategy that can support Thailand’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for older people. This study investigates the elderly’s need to learn communicative English for tourism to maintain local cultural identities. The participants included 170 retired elders from one district in a province in northern Thailand. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that 65.88 % of elders expressed a need for English language training for tourism communication. The elders’ overall needs for training content were also at a high level (x̅= 3.69). Finally, the elders’ needs for situations for practicing English communication skills were at a high level (x̅= 3.74). The results of this study suggest that it is vital to survey and prioritize the elders’ needs for English language communication training courses for local community sustainability. The results of the present study have been used as guidelines for training elders to strengthen their role as a catalytic agent for local tourism.