Travel Patterns Of Millenials

Generations, like people, have personalities, and Millennials – the American group aged 18 to 29,grew into adulthood at the beginning of a new millennium. According to PGAV research their travel patterns are:

Family Oriented: Over 42% of Millennials nationwide who have visited attractions in the past three years have children in their households.

Female Heads Decide: The female heads of household are the decision makers, more so than in other age groups. They are well traveled, sophisticated, self-aware, and seek places with play areas for the kids.

Highly Influenced By Friends And Family: Two-thirds of them visit places recommended by family and friends. They usually depend on social media for such recommendations.

Enjoy Traveling With Friends: Nearly six in ten Millennials (58%) enjoy traveling for leisure with their friends – nearly 20 points higher than older generations.

Savvy: Online sources are most frequently used to plan visits to special places. Always online for information, they search for a deal, read the reviews, book it and go. Majority visit online travel agencies than the website of the special place.

Shorter Planning Cycle: The average amount of time it took to plan their last trip was only 75 days; about 20% less than the amount of time it took the older generations to plan trips (93 days).

Passive experiences will not appeal to Millennials: They have clear preferences for experiences that are fun and entertaining (78%), immersive (70%), and interactive and hands-on (68%).

Small Hotels And Homestays Rated High: TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor’s Travellers Choice Hotels’ list for India indicates that many small hotels and homestays with negligible marketing budgets, offering personalized services and value for money have been rated high. While Taj and Oberoi still dominate the list of top 25 hotels, with five properties of each group in it, lesser known properties such as Bangalore’s Purple Lotus and Munnar’s Camp Noel have also made their mark. Majority of the hotels in the Top 25 list are from Rajasthan, Kerala and Karnataka.

Premium Travel Highest Between USA and Canada

The number of passengers traveling on premium seats between the United States and Canada was the largest market, with more than 400,000 passengers in 2009. Economic size at both origin and destination is the most significant factor in explaining differences between country pairs. The economic size explains about 76 % of premium traffic flow between United States - Canada and more than 80 % between United States - Japan and United States – United Kingdom. All other things being equal, a 10 percent rise in GDP would lead to a 6 percent increase in the number of business passengers.

Medical Tourism: Middle East, Lucrative Source Market

According to Frost and Sullivan report, the Middle East is one of the most lucrative source markets for medical tourism, with 20% of healthcare seekers worldwide coming from Gulf and other Arab states. Patients from the UAE alone spend US$ two-billion in healthcare travel on an annual basis. Currently a US$78.5 billion industry, the medical tourism sector will become a US$100-billion sector by 2012. The annual growth rate of the sector is 20-30%. Germany is the prime medical tourism hub, followed by Thailand, India and Malaysia.

Chinese Tourists Among Top Four Spenders

Mainland Chinese tourists have become the world’s number four tourism spenders, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). Chinese tourists spent a total of US$ 44 billion outside the country in 2010. This is a 21% rise over 2009, placing them behind only Germany, the US and the UK in terms of international spending. The Chinese big-spenders are mostly middle-class travellers from a younger age demographic who value tourism as a cultural experience, and take the opportunity to buy luxury goods abroad.

UK: Low-Cost Business Travel To Stay

Businesses will remain reluctant to upgrade staff to premium class, despite the improving global economic outlook, according to the UK air regulator Civil Aviation Authority report. The recession significantly reduced the amount of UK business travel with an increased shift to economy and no-frills.The number of business passengers in premium seats on routes from London collapsed from 41 per cent in 1996 to 9 per cent in 2007, and only 5 per cent in 2009. Companies that downgraded staff travel during the downturn are unlikely to reverse this trend as they have become accustomed to the significant cost-savings made by travelling in economy and low-cost. European Union and the US will remain the most important markets for UK business travel.

US: Multi-Generational Leisure Travel And Cruises To Increase

Multi-generational leisure travel will continue to grow: one third of all leisure travelers are grandparents, and three out of ten took at least one vacation with their grandchildren last year. This incidence will continue to grow as the population continues to age.Cruises will continue to gain popularity because of the inherent appeal of the experience and attractive pricing. Almost six out of 10 leisure travelers are now interested in taking a cruise during the next two years, more than the proportion who express interest in visiting even the most popular states in the U.S. The Caribbean and Western Europe (Italy) tops the list of “international dream destinations” while California and Florida will, top the list of domestic “dream destinations.” Disney parks (Orlando being the favorite) will continue to dominate the list of “dream destinations” for family travelers (including multi-generational family travelers).