Marketing Destinations to Millennials: Examining the Compatibility between the Destination Marketing Organization Website and the Millennial Tourist Prospects

Abstract

The Baby Boomer generation has been the focus of a great deal of analysis in the travel industry, the millennial generation is now surpassing this segment in garnering more attention. This study shed light on the millennials as the forthcoming tourist demand to assist the destination management organizations (DMOs) better understand their needs and expectations to address them with the right product using the right means of communication. In this perspective, the study focuses on the DMOs' websites as a main marketing tool for delivering the marketing message to the millennials. It investigates the alignment between these websites and the millennials' prospects. Results reveal that the DMOs' websites are still not ready to fulfill the millennials' expectations and that there is a significant difference between these websites and the millennials' prospects regarding the content and performance.

Profiling The Needs and Wants of Millennials in The Tourism Industry: Implications for Zimbabwe

“…Millennials are considered sociable online and offline (Mhlanga, 2018). In as much as they place less importance on face-to-face contact than prior generations, they have a strong desire to be actively social through telecommunication (Hamed, 2017). They are masters of social media (Mhlanga, 2018).…”

“…They are masters of social media (Mhlanga, 2018). The use of social media to bond with others also feeds into the "fear of missing out" where millennials feel the need to share their current location, activities, and opinions with others and this becomes their method of interaction (Lee, 2013;Hamed, 2017;Mhlanga, 2018;Robinson, 2019). Social media enables them to validate the fun they are having by their peers' approval through a "like" on their Facebook status which gives them a much broader reach than previous generations who would have to make a phone call to a friend about a great hotel stay.…”

“…Of particular note to the industry is that millennials tend to extend those business trips into personal vacations thus presenting hotels with an opportunity to earn more from their business (Chua, Chiu, and Bool, 2019). On the other hand, millennials are social creatures who value group work and feedback, hence they prefer to work in the hotel lobby as compared to the older generation who expected room desks so that they can work from their rooms (Hamed, 2017).…”

“…For decades tourist destinations have focused on the Baby Boomers as an essential market for the tourism industry worldwide (Hamed, 2017). However, the focus has been shifted to a new generation of travelers known as "Millennials".…”

“…However, the focus has been shifted to a new generation of travelers known as "Millennials". Millennials are persons born between the years 1980 and 2000 (Howe & Strauss, 2002;Hamed, 2017). The term 'millennials' was coined by Neil Howe and William Strauss in their book Millennials Rising (2002) who defined this generation as individuals born between 1980 and 1999.…”