hoppaGo Team
First it was the millennials and now we have Gen Z coming in strong, ready to hit the travel life and confuse travel companies even more as to what the best way is to market to them is.
Gen Z, born between the mid 1990’s and early 2000’s, are known as the true digital natives. From the earliest youth they have been exposed to the internet, social media and mobile systems.
You may be wondering, ‘what does this have to do with me and my travel company?’. The answer is that it has absolutely everything to do with you and your travel company’s future and sustainability. With Gen Z entering adulthood, they are increasingly more likely to start travelling and exploring before the real responsibilities such as starting a family or buying a house. And the trick of it all is to start building that long-term relationship with them now whilst they are starting out their travel adventures and figuring out which travel companies are the ones they would prefer to work with for future travels.
Now your question may be, ‘but how do we even attract these Gen Zers, and what do they even like?’. Well, we are here to start you off and explain a little bit more about them and what may work for you to start marketing to them.
The first thing you need to know about Gen Z is that their core behaviours are all anchored in one element – their search for the truth! The second thing you need to know about them is that they are of the YOLO (You Only Live Once) mentality.
Just like our millennials, social media is just as important to Gen Z! But it is more than just your typical social media advertising. Unfortunately for travel marketers, Gen see are able to see through the stock marketing images that have always been used before. Gen Z want to see real photos, with real people and real experiences. They want to see things that they can see themselves doing and the lifestyle that they want. So, whether it is having a marketing strategy with influencers or one where you are able to get people to share their experience at your destination, or with your product or service, if there is a way to share that real experience and lifestyle then you will capture Gen Zers attention.
With Gen Z being digital natives and searchers of the truth, they are completely comfortable with collecting and cross-referencing many sources of information. They tend to rely on online searching to find the destinations they would like to visit. But online searching is not only limited to organic searches, it also includes reading ratings and reviews online, along with looking into those instagrammable experiences of previous travellers. With this it may be a good thing to go check how your reviews are doing and if you are handling them in the best way possible.
With all this in mind, it is time for travel companies to gain the next generations attention now in the beginning of their travel journey. Have you got your marketing strategy for Gen Z in place?
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