Three Ways to Engage Millennial Travelers through Blockchain
A New Generation of Travelers
As we step into 2019, with the population of millennials reaching two billion, this new generation is on the precipice of becoming the largest consumer group in the world, recognized by many as being the most powerful consumers. As Financial Times editor John Gapper explains, millennials have reached what the bank calls “the most important age range for economic activity”, meaning they are in the prime spending years of their lives.
The good news for the travel industry is that millennials are extremely attracted to traveling. A recent survey shows that 82% of millennials took vacations in 2015, as opposed to only 75% of all US consumers. Explaining this openness to traveling, Tara Cappel, founder of For the Love of Travel observes, “millennials don’t just see travel as something we do, we identify with it. We consider ourselves citizens of the world and we have an enthusiastic desire to immerse ourselves in another place and return rejuvenated, inspired, and ready for our next adventure. We are travelers.”
Unlike baby boomers, however, millennials look for very different things when they travel, and the travel industry would reap the most benefits from this increasingly economically-powerful generation only by catering to this new set of preferences. Utilizing blockchain technology is one of the best ways to do this.
Unique, Immersive Experiences
No longer content with being a tourist and staying at an all-inclusive beach resort, millennials seek unique, immersive experiences that add to their lives. A recent study found that 78% of millennials prefer spending money on desirable experiences or events over material goods, with 82% having attended a variety of live experiences over the past year. Asked about the future, 72% answered that they’d like to increase their spending on experiences. As millennials earn proportionately small incomes compared to the ever-increasing property prices or expensive luxurious goods, they’ve now turned to experiences as the new form of social currency.
By harnessing the power of blockchain, hospitality providers and travel industry players can utilize Decentralized Applications (DAPPs) to create and market unique and authentic experiences for millennials. Due to their open-source and decentralized nature, DAPPs allow all parties within the travel industry to create and customize their own applications to cater to the niche preferences that millennials hold. Companies can build specific DAPPs offering unique, immersive and authentic travel experiences, fostering a more vibrant market for the travel industry.
Seamless, Friction-free Travel
Having grown up in a technologically advanced world and accustomed to mobile technology, millennials want seamless, friction-free processes when it comes to anything. From making bookings or purchases to looking up information about a destination, all can be done instantly by the tap of a finger. Convenience and speed are no longer luxuries–they’ve become expectations.
Because of this, it comes as no surprise that 64% of millennials book through travel websites and 47% book through hotel or airline websites, while 66% of them make bookings entirely through their smartphones. In line with these findings, millennials also prefer digital payment options, which provide hassle-free payment solutions.
A recent report by Visa indicates that 86% of millennials are “mobile money users” — whether it’s making purchases online, sending money to friends and family, or managing their finances, millennials turn to mobile, digital methods.
Through blockchain and DAPPs, travel industry players can create and market their products on a digital platform compatible with smartphones, maximizing their exposure to the millennial generation. Providing booking services on a mobile platform through blockchain also allows millennials to make payments in their preferred method through electronic payments or virtual cryptocurrencies, removing the need for currency conversions or any associated fees in more conventional payment methods. As blockchain technology serves as a decentralized and distributed ledger, effectively cutting out the middleman, payment processes will be streamlined, creating a truly seamless, frictionless, and instantaneous ecosystem that millennials are drawn to.
Personalization is Key
When it comes catering for millennials, personalization is key. With so much information out there — customer reviews, destination information, and a vast array of activities by various providers — and an increasingly busy lifestyle, millennials look for curated, personalized recommendations and suggestions. As Cappel explains: “We’re at a point technologically where everything can be found online. This was great for consumers at first because it meant they didn’t need the help of experts like travel agents to plan their own trips. Unfortunately, in the past couple of years, we’ve reached a tipping point where there is just so much information that it’s a full-time job to sift through everything. On top of that, the internet is a bit of a wild west so it can be difficult to tell what’s genuine and what’s not.” Couple this with a desire for more unique, tailored, and authentic experiences and it’s clear why millennials prefer personalized options. Indeed, the 2018 Virtuoso Luxe Report states that millennials are increasingly looking for convenience and personalization.
The most effective way to make personalized recommendations and tailor travel experiences for millennials is by knowing your customer — collecting information about their travel preferences, analyzing that data, and highlighting the patterns for each individual. With blockchain technology, companies are able to create digital membership clubs or loyalty programmes, as well as track and harness information about a customer’s purchase and booking patterns. From what types of locations a customer likes visiting, the kinds of activities they look for, to the times of day they prefer to fly at, travel industry players will be able to collect and learn from all the data, enabling them to make better, more personalized, and curated travel recommendations for their customer’s next trip.
Blockchain’s distributed and decentralized nature cuts out the need for middlemen — such as fees for servers and digital storage space — creating a low-cost but incredibly secure method of tracking and storing consumer data, keeping costs low for their customers whilst earning their trust when it comes to data handling.
