In 2015, the new class of business traveller is young, spontaneous, tech-savvy, and globally connected.
Forget the boring business trips of old – Millennials are embracing business travel as a way to forward their careers and explore the planet on their company’s dime. Just as the Millennial influence has greatly impacted the way companies do business back home, the travel industry has perked up its ears and gone out of their way to please this growing population of travellers.
Why?
Because by the year 2020, Millennials between the ages of 18 and 32 will make up nearly 50% of the global workforce. That number is nothing to sneeze at, especially when you consider the fact that Millennials are one of the most vocal, demanding demographics of consumers out there.
Here’s why Millennials have become the customer to please in the competitive world of business travel:
Millennials travel – a lot
The over-35 crowd, most likely tethered to home by family responsibilities, takes just 1-2 brief business trips per year. Millennials, on the other hand, average 5 or more business trips per year. Perhaps it’s because they don’t yet have kids to take care of back home. Perhaps it’s because Millennials are eager to see the world, and more likely to “travel hard” while visiting a new destination on business. They see each business trip as an opportunity for a mini-vacation or sightseeing tour, and are therefore much more likely to jump at the chance to travel than their older counterparts.
Millennials are tech consumers
You know all of those fancy travel apps, gadgets, and technologies we so often feature here on The Wise Traveller? Almost all of them have been developed with Millennials in mind.
The 20s to early 30s crowd has been raised on Facebook and smartphones, and they refuse to forfeit their digital luxuries while travelling. That’s why tech and travel companies alike are scrambling to digitize processes that used to be unheard of during travel – things like real time departure updates based on your airport, in-flight WiFi, and booking an entire trip right from your phone.
Millennials demand the best
Millennials don’t stand by and watch while their older, more experienced colleagues have all the fun. According to Forbes, Millennials are twice as likely to spend company money on things like fine dining and room service while travelling.
The combination of tech savviness, constant online connectivity, and expensive tastes make this demographic the one to please, especially to travel companies that depend on customer reviews to stay afloat.
Millennials depend heavily on peer reviews to book their travel, which means that they, too, are quick to share their opinion of a hotel, restaurant, or tour. Because they’ve grown up entrenched in social media, publicly sharing their opinions is second nature – a fact that is being perceived as a potential threat to many travel retailers, who bend over backwards to keep their Millennial customers happy. Millennials are changing the face of the workforce as we know it, which has translated into a new breed of business travel that is high-tech, high-energy, and highly customer-oriented.
Rebecca Anne Nguyen is a freelance writer and the Founder of TheHappyPassport.com, an inspiration site for solo female travellers.
