How To Appeal to Millennial Travelers [New Research]

Millennials – also known as those aged 18 to 36 – are taking the world by storm. More millennials are traveling, and they are spending more doing so.

In fact, 1 out of 4 millennials surveyed by MMGY Global are planning more overnight leisure trips this year compared to last year. They are also expected to spend incrementally more on travel services than any other age group over the next 12 months.

This is good news for tours and activities, because 6 out of 10 millennials would rather spend their money on experiences than material things.

However, tour operators need to note that millennials’ “planning, booking, and sharing habits are significantly different from those of older leisure travelers”.

So how can you get them to book with you? Make sure that you are able to provide them with the following:

1. Give them an excellent mobile experience

You probably don’t need to be convinced that most millennials are completely hooked on their mobiles. But here are some amazing stats anyway:

#1: Millennials touch their smartphones 43x per day.

#2: On a typical day, 2 out of 3 millennials touch 2 different devices (mostly a smartphone and laptop).

#3: 44% of millennials expect their experience with your company to be consistent regardless of channel.

With this in mind, it’s important to keep your mobile site up to par. Millennials use their mobiles so much that it’s only natural to visit your website through it. As such, there should be no limitations when they access your site via mobile.

2. Engage with them in their preferred way

The same study found that millennials will choose to connect with companies on social media, but want something in return (predominantly perks & discounts). They also discover content mostly through social media networks.

Tour and activity operators should seek to reach millennials through disseminating content on social networks. While it is a tough task to “go viral”, you can post something shareworthy and hope for the best.

Another way of promoting yourself is by offering photo and video services during your tour or activity, and giving it to your customers afterwards. They will likely share their experience on their networks. In fact, holiday updates are the most common type of content shared on Facebook.

3. Speak their language

SDL’s study also revealed some interesting facts about the languages millennials speak:

• Half of millennials in Germany, Netherlands, and Norway, speak something other than their local tongue at home.
• A third of millennials in Australia and UK speak a language other than English at home.
• A quarter of Americans are more comfortable with a language other than English.

Going beyond local language websites, millennials want to be engaged in a culturally relevant way, and want after-sales care in their chosen language.

One of our customers, Walk SF Tours, adapts to French customers brilliantly: “I run two brands. I have a brand for French speakers only called A Pied Tours. I also have Walk SF Tours for everyone who speaks English, and I market those businesses separately. I have different websites, and I have everything localized into French for the French brand.”

Many won’t be able to replicate this, however a first step you can take is to simply assign guides that speak their specific language so that they are able to get more out of the tour.

To keep reading about millennials, check out these other blogs.

And if you would learn more about online marketing for tours and activities, download our free ebook: