The travel industry tends to be a bit schizophrenic in its approach to markets and "what's next." Speakers are lining up to tell you where you need to focus if you don't want to end up as road kill. The Next Big Thing always drives interest, but how often is it truly as advertised?
We were told in the late 1990s that everyone would be having their groceries delivered to their houses and their local grocery store would go the way of the buggy whip. We were also told that travel agents would forever R.I.P. How did those predictions work out?
Now we are told to shift our focus to millennials as they are the next big thing in travel. Really? No disrespect to my younger friends, but baby boomers are the driving force in travel for the foreseeable future; a future that could span the next two decades.
It comes down to facts, not feelings, when we look at this market. Just take this one FACT: 70 percent of wealth is controlled by baby boomers… today! Add in an additional FACT that 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 years of age every day, and you have an interesting travel story. Take one more FACT: that boomers today control more than half of all discretionary spending, and you have all you need to succeed in the business of selling travel.
That doesn't mean you ignore millenials, but you might be waiting a very long time for them to dramatically impact your bottom line: maybe a generation!
The power of the baby boomer numbers were reinforced by CNBC in their interview with Ken Dychtwald, the bestselling author of Age Wave and the leading expert in how demographics drive industries. Dychtwald states another interesting fact about boomers in his recent CNBC appearance:
"You are going to see the greatest amount of free time in the history of the world with people (baby boomers) who are looking for an adventure… that's going to benefit the travel industry."
He went on to discuss a number of different industries, in addition to travel, that are being positively impacted by demographics and the baby boom generation, and had this to say about millenials:
"It's one thing to target 25 year olds who are lovely and look good and use ATMs and all sorts of cool things, but they have no money."
We are seeing more travel from younger people today than the generations that came before them, but that doesn't change the overwhelming buying power of the baby boom generation. Like I said, don't ignore them, but make sure they don't distract you either.
My advice goes right along with Ken's: don't lose your core focus on the greatest driver in travel for the next two decades, the baby boomer.
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