Of all the key overseas source markets for the U.S. tour and travel industry, none has been glued to the past in the way its travelers research and book travel as much as Germany. While declining in their numbers ever so slowly over the past decade, German long-haul travelers—in particular, those who account for the two million or so visits to the United States from the country—have maintained a fealty to the traditional distribution system, usually making the point of purchase at a travel agency or over the phone with a travel agent.
No longer. A new survey of the German market by Yougov—”Millennials as Digital Travelers”—informs us that Millennials (those born from 1981 to 1996 and who are now 22 to 37 years old), the first generation to be grow up digitally, are driving up the percentage of Germans who are booking holidays and other trips online and as separate products rather than as packages from tour operators.
Some of the findings from the Yougov survey, as reported by the German travel trade publication FVW, include the following:
—The percentage of millennials (also known as Generation Y) to book accommodation through Booking.com (headquartered in Amsterdam, it is the world’s largest OTA) has increased from 25 percent to 28 percent over the last two years, and at Airbnb has increased from 15 percent to 19 percent.
—Traditional tour operators such as TUI are declining in popularity among millennials—the percentage of their numbers using them has declined from 22 percent two years ago to 19 percent.
—Millennials use the internet extensively to research travel information, with two out of five (39 percent) paying attention to online hotel evaluations, compared to only 29 percent of respondents over age 35.
—These young adults are parsimonious in their travel spending. More than a quarter (27 percent) selected their most recent holiday destination taking low costs into account, while 18 percent of “over-35’s” did so.
—Just 20 percent of millennials selected their destination because they had already been there and enjoyed their stay.
Discussing the results of the survey, Yougov consultant Sven Runge warned that traditional travel companies should take note of the trends: “Traditional providers should continually monitor the travel behavior and needs of Generation Y, in order not to completely lose them as customers to suppliers of individual products.”
There is absolutely nothing funny about this. Car crashes are a leading cause of death in the U.S. and were expected to cause around 40,000 deaths by the end of 2018. To put it plainly, America’s roads are dangerous. Texting behind the wheel is a major reason for many traffic fatalities, and it’s only getting worse. In 2016, 3,450 people were killed by distracted driving. Plus, inexpensive gas and a strong economy means more drivers. And More people on the road leads to more accidents and citations.
U.S. travel suppliers trying to accommodate the Chinese travel market who thought that they had addressed the challenge of handling payments from Chinese visitors by signing up and accepting the UnionPay bank card now have another challenge.
The Travel Market Report has issued its FIT/Packaged Vacations Report Card. And while the sample on pay policies that it uses for the Report Card is not comprised of those who bring international arrivals to the U.S., it helps to better understand the pay schedule policies of those involved in the tour operator-to-travel-agent-to-consumer distribution of the travel product.
An interesting development in the Chinese market is, as Jing Travel has just pointed out— with all the focus during the past several years of the importance of the Millennial market and its impact on the way travel suppliers promote and sell to it—the tour and travel industry seems to have overlooked a very important factor within the market. That is: China’s citizens are growing older, and DMOs and suppliers would be wise to adapt to their travel needs and offer campaigns that appeal to them.