{"id":97179273,"date":"2016-07-06T20:30:12","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T20:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/?p=97179273"},"modified":"2016-07-19T16:54:05","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T16:54:05","slug":"millennial-travel-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/millennial-travel-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Millennials Aren’t Traveling Like You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millennials aren\u2019t traveling like you. Gone are the days of travel agents, posed pictures with cheesy smiles, and the sun, sand, and souvenirs culture. This generation of twenty-and-thirtysomethings are looking for something more than R&R out of their vacations. The Miami beach party scene that we associate with young, hip partiers, while still shown on MTV and Keeping up with the Kardashians<\/em>, doesn\u2019t accurately represent this group either. This new generation\u00a0travels for culture, they travel for food, they travel to share. (And they\u2019re completely transforming the travel industry as we know it.)<\/span><\/p>\n

A study done by <\/span>Topdeck Travel<\/span><\/a>, an agency that caters specifically to the Millennial crowd, uncovered interesting information about this demographic.<\/span> 86%<\/b> of them traveled to experience a new culture and <\/span>69% <\/b>were more interested in eating local foods than they were partying or shopping.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do they decide where to go?<\/span><\/p>\n

Two factors come into play here, and neither of them are travel agents<\/span> or<\/span> advertisements.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0first factor is social media, and the second <\/span>is<\/span> kind of <\/span><\/i>social media. Not terribly surprising to see that their network of friends and the larger network of people updating popular review sites (Tripadvisor, Yelp, Airbnb) are their main contributors\u00a0that help them decide where to travel.<\/span><\/p>\n

A survey<\/span><\/a> found that 75%<\/strong> of Millennials post to social networks at least once a day during their traveling. Thanks to map features on Facebook and Instagram, Millennials are actively updating in order to add locations and also share their vacation with their friends – influencing others to vacation there as well. After all, they live in the <\/span>\u201cPics or it didn\u2019t happen\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as company review sites, the study showed that getting user-generated recommendations are more influential to them than any advertisement, since these sites have strict policies that keep businesses from deleting or adjusting reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Andrey<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only way you can tell that where you\u2019re going is as amazing as it looks,\u201d said 24-year-old Steven Nicholson, a frequent Millennial traveler. \u201cI update those sites when I travel, especially if it was a bad experience so that others don\u2019t get stuck making my same mistake.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of social media, much travel for Millennials involves updating review sites as they go. An article in <\/span>The Guardian <\/span><\/a>says, referring as an example of\u00a0those travelers visiting the Louvre\u2019s Mona Lisa, \u201cThe experience must be captured\u2026 <\/span>a photograph which, in the end, says, I was here. I went to Paris and saw the Mona Lisa. The photo shows that you could afford the trip, that you are cultured…\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Traveling then, is about the experience itself, but it is also about sharing the experience. And because of that, Millennials are transforming the travel industry. <\/span><\/p>\n

Brilliant photographs are being taken and shared. Review sites are being updated, warning and encouraging others to share their same experience. \u201cI did this and loved it and so will you,\u201d\u00a0the reviews say to the reader. Checking in to a restaurant or hotel or landmark\u00a0verifies that you were there, you actually had that experience, and it lends\u00a0credibility to any review you might post. <\/span><\/p>\n

As a business though, you need more than just free Wi-Fi and your own social media accounts if you want to attract this important crowd. Value, integrity, and lasting experience is what they seek. And the waves they\u2019re making in the industry are reaching all of us, making our own travel more beneficial, unique, and, well, more connected.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Millennials aren\u2019t traveling like you. Gone are the days of travel agents, posed pictures with cheesy smiles, and the sun, sand, and souvenirs culture. This generation of twenty-and-thirtysomethings are looking for something more than R&R out of their vacations. The Miami beach party scene that we associate with young, hip partiers, while still shown on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":97179274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1942],"tags":[1987,2152,30],"class_list":["post-97179273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-stories","tag-millennial","tag-social-media","tag-travel-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97179273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97179273"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97179273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97179742,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97179273\/revisions\/97179742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97179274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97179273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97179273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97179273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}