Traveling Like A Millennial

It seems that millennial are the ones people love to hate, unless you are a millennial yourself – then you are most likely loving your life too much to hate anything. What part of life is the most enjoyed by this generation? You wouldn’t be wrong if you were to guess that travel and food come pretty high up on the list of things millennial (thoroughly) enjoy.

So how does this generation travel? How are they doing it, and is the rest of the world doing it wrong?

The Huffington Post seems to cover this topic rather frequently and has come to the conclusion that “Generation Y” is much fancier about how they travel. A recent infographic released by Chase Card Services shows that millennials are more likely to take advantage of hotel amenities such as dry-cleaning, spas and massages. They also tend to look for hotels that accommodate pets and are located near some sort of public transportation.

Another article also written by The Huffington Post, discusses recent research which has found, “The young among us travel for leisure more than anyone else, are well-versed in what makes for a good travel experience, and are willing to voice complaints loudly when their expectations aren’t met.”

The article also finds that these young travelers tend to take an average of about 9 trips per year, while some or most are business related “generation y” travelers are more likely to tack on an extra personal day in order to explore and enjoy their travel experience. They are also more likely to spend more money on food, keep in mind this generation is also often included in the “foodie” category as well.

The Atlantic discusses how the millennial generation does not feel that it has to wait until its “golden years” to see the world, giving deeper meaning to the “You only live once,” mentality. The article also makes a great point that our generation was impressionable enough when the recession hit to fuel this (almost) overwhelming need to travel now, instead of to save for a future which is in no way guaranteed or predictable.

Lastly, while millennials are often given a hard time about always being on their phones and over active on social media sites, Huffington Post has found that this generation is the most likely to want to meet others while on vacation. The infographic provided by Chase also found that 97% of millennials are likely to share their traveling experiences on some sort of social network, and 73% post at least once a day when they are traveling. Undoubtedly this could do wonders for tourism and the hospitality industry, since 44% of millennial travelers get their travel information off of social media sites when gathering research for a future vacation.

So, if you’re not a millennial you’re probably not going about traveling “wrong.” However, it might be worth your while to travel with a millennial to see if you may be missing out on a great travel experience.