Millennials have lived through a recession, a war, and a mobile revolution. All of these events have shaped our opinions and behaviors in every aspect of our lives, especially how we consume information when considering travel.
We watched our parents, grandparents, mentors, and virtually every adult in our immediate vicinity panic when the recession hit. Even though we did not fully understand it, we did understand that money was lost, and that was bad. Once we had to start paying bills, managing our own credit and learning what 401K actually meant, we began to understand why it was so bad. This resulted in young money-savers. We are investing in our retirements at a median age of 22 and regularly putting away money (according to Wells Fargo).
There’s a reason reality TV has exploded in the last 10 years, it’s because we consider the over-the-top lifestyle as entertainment. We are smart and sensible enough to know that we will never have million dollar homes with rooms we don’t even use, and that our lives shouldn’t amount to having the most expensive item that’s trending at the moment. Point being, we want experiences not stuff. Except for the latest version of IPhone, we definitely want that. We are putting value on experiences that enhance our lives and our social media feeds. Our souvenirs are photos and stories as opposed to branded t-shirts, mugs, magnets, etc.
We’ve got some extra money floating around and we want to spend it on experiences at your destinations, this is all good news. But how do marketers and companies get us to give up that hard-earned cash? The answer is so simple, yet sometimes so hard to attain: responsibility.
Our cyber stalking skills are in their prime, and we want to know if DMO’s and CVB’s are treating their locals in a respectful and beneficial manner. We will spend hours researching articles and reviews to find out exactly what any given company is doing to bring something to the table for their community. If we’re going to give up our hard earned cash at your destination, we want to make sure your company is responsible with the community as well as the environment.
We want to travel, we want to spend our hard-earned money, we want experiences, but we want them from responsible companies that can be captured on our brand new IPhones. Because ya know, we’re Millennials.
