A Radical Thought: Do Millennials Really View Travel Differently?
Photo Credit: The differences between Millennial travelers and non-Millennial travelers aren't as big as you might think. Flickr / JFXie
Skift Take
Travel marketers may really be off base if they overplay their hand toward Millennials. Two studies found that although Millennials as a group have huge buying power when it comes to travel, other groups' travel aspirations aren't all that different.
Forget what you think you know about traditional travel marketing principles and crafting effective loyalty programs. There aren't many differences among Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, Gen Zers, road warriors, or vacationers — at least not when it comes to how they travel.
If you want to engage consumers of all ages and types, and build brand loyalty with them, you've got to look beyond those definitions to get at the heart of their shared travel wants and needs.
That's what two new studies, one from Price Waterhouse Coopers' (PwC) Consumer Intelligence Series, and another from Upshot, a Chicago-based marketing agency, seem to be hinting at.
The PwC study, "What's Driving Customer Loyalty for Today's Hotel Brands?" interviewed 1,026 business and leisure travelers (59 percent business; 41 percent leisure) ranging in age from 21 to 69 to understand loyalty behaviors across a spectrum of guests.
What the PwC researchers found, in some ways, was surprising: "Millennials are
