It’s a wanderful life
For Gen Z, travel isn’t just for stress-relief: it’s also a means of self-discovery and self-expression.
As modern-day Renaissance Man, Drake, said in his high school graduation speech, “Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.”
Gen Z seems to agree.
Our recent research involving 3,000 Aussie Gen Z students uncovered that:
> 72% of respondents love discovering new places and are excited by other cultures.
> 57% are “always on the lookout for my next adventure”.
While they may not know the endpoint, they’ll gleefully whack the piñata of life with each new adventure, dining on the sweet candy of knowledge and experience that tumbles out.
UNiDAYS ANZ GM, Prue Thomas, believes Gen Z’s strong desire to travel demonstrates the clear connection between money, time, and identity.
“Our research indicates that Gen Z saves to spend. And they’ll often spend their money on products and experiences that can be used for self-expression and self-discovery, which is a valuable way of spending their time.”
Journeys and destinations are big business, too. According to Booking.com’s new survey of 22,000 Gen Zs from around the globe, 52 per cent say travel is always worth spending money on.
For those of you who invest heavily in influencer marketing (still reeling from The Great Like-Hiding of 2019, no doubt), know this: 44 per cent cited influencers’ trip content on Insta as the main reason they created a travel bucket list of their own.
As the old saying goes: a pic of an Aperol Spritz being held aloft at Cinque Terre is worth a thousand likes.
These stats track with some of our other local insights:
> On the UNiDAYS ANZ platform, ‘Travel’ is the fifth most-searched term (‘Fashion’, ‘Pizza’, and ‘Laptops’ are holding down the top spots).
> A recurring theme in two of our previous pieces was saving up to spend on travel: from snowboarding in Japan to balancing the budget in order to buy a car and get away.
> All 3,000 of our student panellists said international travel is one of the few things they’d be willing to pay full-price for… not that they don’t want or actively seek out discounts! On the flip side, our respondents want cheaper domestic travel (flights and accom).
Thomas says,
“Travel is seen by Gen Z as a really rewarding investment. It allows them to:
- Alleviate stress;
- Socialise face-to-face;
- Explore — be it for pleasure, personal fulfillment, and yes, the ’gram;
- Create content — for both themselves and their followers.”
