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Mixing with millennials & customers of tomorrow

Already having an influence upon the travel industry, the millennial generation has now come of age - entering into their prime working and spending years ? with Generation Z soon to enter the workforce.

Dr Paul Redmond, director of student experience and enhancement at Liverpool University, was on hand at the 2017 ABTA Travel Convention to identify the different behavioural aspects of these generations and how agents might tap into this prospective market.

Key for this generation is technology, but the challenge posed is how to connect, motivate and sell to this generation when they may wield better technology or communicate in a different medium. Redmond said: ?This generation, and generation Z in particular, face a future of ubiquitous globalisation of technology and information - everywhere they go, all the time, 24/7 - this information will be about everything from anywhere, available anytime at unlimited speed on all kinds of devices. This technology changes the way people see themselves in the world and this technology is not neutral; it changes our behaviour.?

Key to note is that this generation is ?the ultimate snack consumer?; they don?t read long messages with the average millennials attention span engaged for 12 seconds (for Generation Z this was even shorter at eight seconds) Redmond said: ?If you want to engage, communicate with them and sell to them; remember that their attention spans are getting shorter. If you don't grab their attention in eight seconds they've moved on.

?This generation offers a lot of great opportunities for the travel sector but we can't treat them as if it?s the 20th century and must adjust accordingly. Whereas millennials are tech-savvy Gen Z is tech-innate. If you want to target this sector you can't even treat them as if they were millennials because they already view the world in a very different way.

"If you want to engage with Generation Z make it multiscreen; that's how they want to communicate and you've got to be clear and transparent with no jargon. They want comprehensive solutions spanning multiple products so everywhere they go want a seamless experience and they want to be treated as adults and not talked down to. Convenience, value, seamless integration is absolutely critical for this generation and are very willing to share their data online if it means cheaper products. Finally if you want to communicate with Gen Z start the conversation with the 'Why'.?



Travel Bulletin

Alain Charles Publishing (Travel) Ltd
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