How Millennials impact the development of online tools and the Internet overall
I consider myself lucky enough to have an excellent opportunity to work in two great industries: travel and tech. When I have a spare minute to write blog, I usually cover topics and share my point of view about virtual reality, chatbots, artificial intelligence, and the power of aggregators in the travel industry. As a part of my daily founder`s job at CruiseBe, rather often I am invited to speak at various technical and travel conferences in the US, and I have an excellent opportunity to discuss industry trends and case studies with executives and opinion-leaders.
The topics I mentioned above are rather hot and popular, and we can notice an increasing interest in the implementation of such technology across different industries. The only problem is that a big part of this kind of technology is still in the development stage, like MVPs (minimum viable product), or it needs a lot of additional improvements and fixes. Well, many of us know the thorny pass from the first release to the working betta. We can only predict how certain technologies will affect the world.
But today I`d like to write about things that have already transitioned from being trends to being well-used daily technology.
Let’s recall that only fifteen years ago, the prime sources of inspiration for tourists were television broadcasts, the periodical press, and magazines. We could book a trip only through a travel agent. It was impossible to find reviews about hotels, restaurants, or campgrounds. Well, most of them did not even have a website.
The revolution in the travel industry began with the increasing popularity of search engines. However, at that time, only third-parties like travel agents, various ticket offices, etc. took advantage of the new technology.
On the one hand, vendors and resorts had a hard time understanding how to get to the first positions in search results, and on the other hand, tourists didn`t quite realize how to search for the necessary information online. I can go deeper into history and examples, but not in this post.
Everything changed when smartphones became an ordinary device for every person, and nearly everyone has an account in one or another social network. This event coincided with one other significant factor. The factor I am talking about is the rapid growth of millennials generation — one of the largest generations in the history of humankind.
Who are Millennials?
Millennials are a generation of people who were born between 1986 and the mid-1990s. There are more than 92 million millennials only in the United States. As for now, the generation of millennials is the largest in US history. The same trend can be seen all over the world.
It is worth mentioning that Generation Z is already at our doorstep. According to multiple forecasting statistics, this generation will be even larger. In just a few years, Generation Z alone will make about 40% of the global tourism market. Together with millennials, they will represent the lion’s share of the world market. These two generations will play a significant role in the development of the tourism market for at least the next ten years.
Millennials and Generation Z representatives are not used to watching television programs and purchasing magazines. They behave differently, and their behavior will become a fundamental factor in the development of any business.
Millennials` habits
Millennials are connected to the Internet 24/7. Young generations differ by showing more interest in studying practical use-cases and not just theoretical examples. They would rather travel to Budapest than watch an hour and a half TV program about the history of this city. Moreover, these generations are prone to spontaneous and unexpected trips, and the decision is made as quickly as possible.
Young generations draw inspiration for travel from social networks. According to studies, more than 87% of millennials are inspired by social networks (more often Facebook) to go on a new trip. Generation Z prefers Instagram and Snapchat. The share of social networks such as Twitter and Pinterest is much lower, but it also varies from 15–25%.
In other words, photos and stories from a trip around Europe, the US national park, or a breathtaking beach in Dubai posted by a friend or blogger have a powerful influence on the young generation, which leads to the desire to visit this place. Moreover, millennials and Generation Z trust and listen to the opinions of friends and influencers on social networks much more than regular ads or some experts in travel programs or popular magazines.
The share of Facebook coverage among active tourists is even higher and reaches up to 94%. Let’s recall a time about 15 years ago when most of the travel agencies didn’t even have a website. Nowadays, if a travel agency doesn’t have a profile on social networks (at least on Facebook and Instagram) in 2019, young clients will be lost for the agency. Hopefully, such old-fashioned travel agencies still have a chance to “catch the last train,” but we don’t know for that sure.
According to the studies of Goldman Sachs, more than a third of millennials take into account the presence of the brand in social networks when making a purchase. If the brand is not represented on social networks, it immediately loses these customers and their money, and this is more than 34% of the market today and, most likely, more than 60% tomorrow. So is it how dinosaurs died?
Social networks are not enough
It is rather obvious, a profile in social networks can not guarantee the travel agency a success among young generations. The lion’s share of millennials checks several websites or applications to get different information from competitors before deciding to buy a tour or book a hotel. That is why travel aggregators are a popular and comfortable way to choose a hotel or flights and compare prices of different brands. In one of my articles, I was writing about the benefits of travel aggregators, online tools, and platforms that disrupt the travel industry.
“Business must be present in all kinds of aggregators, search engines and forums…” — this phrase was relevant ten years ago. Now businesses must have a mobile version of the website and a mobile application. Three-quarters of young generations use mobile devices to search for information (most often a smartphone). Almost 75% of millennials have travel applications on their phones. For comparison, previous generations hardly reach 50%.
Why is this important? More than half of Millenials use mobile devices to book travel. Most likely, such a statistic is nearly the same across other industries. Businesses that ignore these trends have already lost more than 50% of their potential revenue.
Moreover, the opinion of a stranger has become very important for young generations. Only 15 years ago, reviews were totally unnecessary for business. Word of mouth was the only thing that worked. Everything has changed with the advent of search engines and social networks. Now anyone can leave a review about a particular business on various platforms, whether it is a search engine, aggregator, social network, or an application store. More than 80% of millennials consider reviews a useful and vital factor when choosing a trip. Most people rely on an independent rating left by other Internet users.
The realization of this factor is vital for the business. Most customers will gladly leave a review or share their impressions after the trip in social networks, whether it is the business page or a personal one.
According to statistics, 97% of millennials will definitely make a post about their journey, and three quarters will post reports almost every day. Returning to the initial topic of the article, the lion’s share of their friends will get inspired by these posts and reviews, and these are potential customers. The purchase funnel and word of mouth of the 21st century began its work.
What should a business do to survive? No one wants to end up on the sidelines of history, missing technical progress development.
The formula is quite simple: create your presence on the Internet (including social networks, aggregators, and applications), be active, and do not give reasons for negative reviews. These simple steps will help your business make it to the top and generate revenue because Millenials and Generations Z won’t scroll to the second page of search results to find your business.
My article was previously published in Ukrainian media via the link.
