The way we travel

In our continuous work focused on understanding the Spanish traveler market and helping tourism companies to realize the opportunities, we launched the new Barometer, which analyzes the behavior and attitudinal profile in terms of travel of Spanish people born after 1980, ie exclusively of the Millennials and Z’s generations, (in turn comparing with generations X and Y, born before 1980).

“Young people are transforming the tourism sector today, and will do so much more in the coming years. We must begin to understand these profiles, how much they spend, how they are inspired, what motivates them when they book their trips, what travel formats they prefer, what channels they use, what products they consume and what they demand from industry players. Only in this way will we be able to anticipate their needs and be able to offer them a personalised and differential offer.

An offer that meets their high expectations and demands, since it is a highly technological profile, used to having everything here and now, and not very tolerant of frustration, which makes them less loyal customers and more prepared and independent than previous generations”, says Angel Garcia ButragueƱo, Co-Director of the Tourism Barometer and Head of the Tourism and Leisure Division of BRAINTRUST, which advises tourism companies on knowing their travellers.

Youth Travel Spending Grows Above Market Average

Among the conclusions of the study is that NextGen travelers are the most willing to purchase and consume leisure travel. More than 60% have given ratings from seven, compared to 54% of other generations, which puts the index of consumption of leisure travel (IPCVO) at 67.6 (the rest of generations is set at 63.4).

This year, young Spaniards will make an average of 2.8 trips, for which they will spend an average budget of 683 euros. This figure represents a 6.1% increase as compared with the previous year (as compared with a 4.1% increase in the rest of the generations).

Make more trips but shorter

With an average duration of just over a week, the report shows that 47% of these travellers will make at least 3 trips a year, with up to 71% making more than 2 trips a year.

With this approach in mind, the duration of their trips will be shorter compared to the rest of the travellers, being residual the percentage that will use more than 3 weeks per trip, 5%, while the remaining 95% will spend less than 3 weeks.

Specifically, 13% will enjoy 2 weeks, 30% one week and 52% less than one week, always with the aim of making as many trips as possible, within a concept of global generations and travelers as are the Millennials and Z’s.

It is also worth noting the low seasonality shown by the NextGen, with only 38% traveling in the high season, while 62% do so outside the season, drawing a great opportunity for the entire tourism industry in its ongoing quest for deseasonalization.

They like to travel for many different reasons

Motivated by different reasons, the NextGen leads each and every one of the arguments to travel, being the interest to know a new place (83%), the recommendation of friends and family (60%) or the information they have seen on the Internet (42%), the main reasons, being behind any type of advertising either on television, film, magazines, blogs or social networks, which should make the marketing departments reflect on their investment for this type of audience. In this sense, young people spend more time dreaming and planning their trip, phases to which they allocate more time than other travellers.

Spain is too small for them and they want to see the world

These trips that the NextGen will make will be with international vocation, with 32% of them abroad against 26% of the rest of the travellers.

Among the national destinations chosen this year by travelers will highlight mainly Andalusia (26%), Madrid (19%), Basque Country (12%), Catalonia (11%) and the Canary Islands (11%). Behind them are destinations such as Galicia, Castile and Leon and the Balearic Islands.

In Europe, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany and Greece will be the destinations mainly chosen by young people, while the United States and Japan will take the lead in terms of more distant horizons.

This choice of places is very much related to the way the new generations travel, because although the own car is the most used transport, low cost airlines, train or bus are the most differential means.

They’re changing the formats and booking channels

Unlike generations X and Y, the NextGen use a greater number of sources of information to prepare their trips, among which stand out friends and family with 59%, websites of opinions and tourist destinations with 51%, leaving behind travel guides, specialized blogs, travel agencies, and social networks.

During the search and booking process, they use their mobile phone more than other ages, with 3 uses on average compared to generations X and Y with 2 uses on average, and they do so mainly to see recommendations and read other people’s experiences (60%), book accommodation (52%) and view photos of other travellers (40%).

On the other hand, these younger generations are banishing the traditional format of the tourist package, relegating it to a marginal 9% as an option, as opposed to the dynamic package with 13%, and the loose services that win the battle with 71%, confirming the preponderance of the “do it yourself” format of people under 40, a fact that should raise the industry how to approach these generations to achieve their loyalty.

In this context, the study shows that they are beginning to forget the traditional route and are opting for specialised and personalised itineraries with 79%, either thematic, where films and television series influence with their shooting scenarios, or the old “fly & drive” with 71%, which once again takes centre stage with younger people.

As for the booking channels, the online channel is the majority for the NextGen generations with online agencies and search engines and aggregators reaching up to 40% of weight, being the face-to-face agencies used by only 8%, while the direct channel in both origin and destination takes 46%.

And they’re not very loyal to destinations, and brands

Finally, the NextGen Barometer points out the low loyalty of the new generations in their behaviour, because only 29% of these travellers are faithful to a specific destination, and only 54% are faithful to the type of accommodation. As a result, there is little memory of the brands that travelers have, data that has already published BRAINTRUST in previous Tourist Barometers.