While baby boomers have created the idea of travel being a necessity rather than a luxury, millennials have taken that idea and evolved it with the help of technology. Quite simply, the younger generation is changing the landscape of travel.
According to a Skift survey, only 10 percent of millennials used a travel agent in the past year. At the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) Global Convention, retail and marketing strategists Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender discussed a few tips on how travel agents — as well as the travel industry as a whole — can target millennials and Generation Z.
Create an FAQ page
When it comes to travel, millennials have always been a part of the conversation — even as kids when their parents were planning vacations.
When you send out those emails on the behalf of your brand or agency, keep in mind that millennials don't think like previous generations when it comes to customer service. They don't want to talk over the phone; they want the information they need at their fingertips.
According to a survey done by Kelton Global for Salesforce's Desk.com, using the phone for customer service is unpopular with millennials. A quarter (26 percent) say they never look forward to it. And 41 percent of those surveyed say they look to the FAQ section of a company's website before doing anything else.
Creating an FAQ page allows millennials to read the answer rather than be put on hold.
Emails are passé unless they come with an offer
When it comes to travel, emails are OK if an offer is included in that email. If not, millennials don't want it.
If they do sign up to receive your email blasts, don't take oversaturate them. Consumers want to hear from you about every 10-20 days. Millennials have a short attention span, so when you send those emails, make sure they are about "20-second reads" — meaning more photos and less copy.
Those emails also need to create a targeted persona. You want your emails to come off as if you are having a conversation with that millennial consumer.
Learn about Generation Z
Generation Z, or "Zeds," are what Kizer and Bender consider the "kids getting older younger" generation. Currently they only make up 25.9 percent of the world's population, but they will become the next generation on which the travel industry will need to keep an eye.
They are different than millennials. Zeds want things done on their own terms. Here are a few things to keep in mind about this generation.
Zeds assimilate what they want.
Zeds can text, play online and watch TV all at the same time, but they have a shorter attention span than the millennial generation. They have "8-second filters."
Since they are the first generation to grow up entirely with mobile, it's important that companies and brands be mobile-friendly and mobile-centric.
Zeds aren't mere consumers, they are curators.
Generation Z has no filters when it comes to privacy. According to the Pew Research Center, 81 percent of teenagers are on social media. And 93 percent of Gen Z say they visit YouTube at least once a week, while 54 percent visit the site multiple times a day.
With this generation, social media marketing is a must for businesses. Kizer and Bender say social media outlets for this generation are like online cocktail parties. It's all about interaction. You need to listen, interact, react and sell to this generation.
Social media is a must
Social media is a big part of both millennials and Gen Z. Businesses planning to interact with these two generations must have the three big social media sites: Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.
Facebook allows you to plan your social media strategy. You can publish a post in advance, but be wary if an event comes up and that post is no longer relevant to current events. For example, if an event is canceled, don't let a post go out about that now-canceled event.
Understand too that there is hard work that goes with posting on Facebook. Don't assign it to someone just because he/she is from a younger generation.
Use your own email address when setting up your business's Facebook page account. Most importantly, appoint someone you trust to run the account.
It is also important to engage with your users on the social media site. A four-year study conducted by Yeti Data and Collective Bias on grocery store’s Facebook pages showed that fans of the store on average bought 125 more items than a typical customer.
"I think the general opinion is, 'Why wait until you have them in the store to make them a buyer?' If you have good content, then by the time they've engaged with this really great content, they've already, in their minds, used this product," says Bob Loos, the Director of Analytics at Collective Bias.
"You can convert before you have to win them in-store. ... When you're starting a new Facebook page, you need fans. But it doesn't necessarily help to grow your fan base if you're not going to engage. You're then throwing good money after bad. There's a lot of test-and-learn that goes on when we post things on a page."
With Instagram, it's all about photographs. Photos usually have a 30-minute time span before reaching their peak.
Be fun and creative with your posts. Don't be afraid to show users what goes on behind the brand. A study by Tapfluence and Influitive showed 92 percent of consumers turn to people they know for referrals above any other source.
Snapchat
Snapchat is the one of the fastest-growing social media phone apps that is particularly popular with adults in their 20s and teenagers. It allows uses to "snap" to their friends, but snaps disappears quickly once a user opens them.
Unlike Facebook and Instagram, users can't share, like or comment on a snap.
Despite not having the same capabilities as other social media sites, Snapchat does have a higher user engagement because viewers must have their finger on the snap the entire time or else it will disappear.
According to HVS, the millennial population will surpass the baby boomer generation when it comes to travel by 2030 — with Generation Z trailing right behind. It's important that the travel industry get ahead of the change and adapt to the new trends in travel by these younger generations before they get left behind.
