Insider: Twenty-Something Travel: Catering to the NOW generation

By Kevin Williams, Vice President of Distribution, TravelWorm

Mr. Kevin Williams

It's the age of globalization and the age of an increasingly connected world.  It’s natural that the next generation feels compelled to take part in the ever-widening, yet progressively more accessible world that's shaping around them.  That's a good thing for us in the travel industry, because we understand that the next generation of consumers are primed for travel, perhaps in a way that the past generations were not.   

As a group, twenty-somethings are very action-oriented.  This generation is also incessantly connected, something that stems from their incredible ease with technology.  In this Age of Google, young adults know that if they're confused or uncertain about something – a travel package, an itinerary, or a city – all they need to do is go to the internet, which seems to be their preferred oracle of wisdom.   

In the more specific landscape of travel, it seems that twenty-somethings are going through a continuing paradigm shift from "I want to see the world" to "I want to experience the world". There's a very defined move away from passive traveling – looking at sites, staying in the tourist zone – to really actively pursuing a unique travel experience.  As a result of all this accessible knowledge, coupled with a desire to learn and experience more of the world, young travelers now tend toward vacations that allow them to step outside of their daily reality and actively experience one another. 

Over at TravelWorm, we recently came up with a site redesign that we're confident will highlight the importance of experience.  We call these our thematic vacation pages, which are divided into categories – adventure, beach, skiing, wellness travel, and so on.  We are also working on a collection of itineraries that cater to specific experiential activities that range from girlfriend getaways to celebcations, to meet individuals specific interests.  We feel that this is just a necessary evolution in how we present travel to the twenty-something consumer.  Read more about this in my article "Twenty-Something Travel: Catering to the NOW generation" in the Hotel Business Review. 

Click here to subscribe to the Hotel Business Review 

Sincerely, 

Kevin Williams

Vice President of Distribution

TravelWorm

702-407-8000

kwilliams@travelworm.com