Millennials, like all other age groups, generally display certain tendencies, but older generations often market to them without taking these tendencies into consideration.
Here are seven tendencies with major implications for marketing to millennial travelers, based on a recent Google survey.
–Sixty-five percent of millennial travelers initiate interactions with a brand or an organization online.
–Forty-one percent say they’ve used a smartphone to shop for flights while only 25 percent of people over 35 years old said the same.
–Twenty-seven percent of millennial travelers say they’ve used a smartphone to shop for hotels, compared with 19 percent of people over the age of 35.
–Sixty-six percent of millennials are confident they can find all the same flight and hotel information whether searching on a mobile device or a desktop computer.
–Twenty-seven say they’ve used a smartphone to shop for hotels, compared with 19 percent of people over 35.
–Fifty-nine percent say they typically purchase a flight on a smartphone after shopping on one, while 44 percent of those who are over 35 say the same.
–Sixty-four percent of millennials say they typically book a hotel room on a smartphone after shopping on one, while 42 percent of those over 35 do so.
These findings are particularly important because young employees are traveling for business more than ever before, according to The Portrait of Business Travelers report, based on the MMGY Global survey.
The survey, released in June, asked 1,007 business travelers who took at least one trip during the past year (prior to the survey being released) and expected to take at least one trip in the following year about their business travel habits and expectations.
Overall, business travelers took 6.8 trips, and the number was expected to increase to 7.4 by the end of the year. Millennials went on 7.4 business trips, compared to 6.4 for Gen Xers and 6.3 for baby boomers.
Another key finding was that younger travelers are less likely to book air travel based on loyalty program perks, and more likely to book based on the type of experience they want.
