French millennials and the travel experience
French millennials and the travel experience
After years of uncertainty and chaos, it would seem that the tourism and hospitality industries are stabilizing to allow new travel dreams to emerge, outlining a horizon of exciting opportunities.
Particularly among millennials, a generation I belong to, there is a growing desire for the "experiential", an approach to tourism and culture that places the emphasis on interaction and the unique, the atypical. This taste for first-person experience is blowing a refreshing breeze through the industry, spurring renewal and creative innovation in teh sector.
More numerous, more mobile (5 trips a year compared to 3 for other generations of Europeans¹) and more travel-spending(tourism spending has risen by around 10% a year in recent years, compared to 4% for the general population²) millennials seem to focus their expectations on immersive, authentic and socially connected experiences.
These desires are reflected first and foremost in their choice of destinations. For John-Lee Saez, Managing Director of Kayak Europe, the destinations popular with millennials are captivating: "No longer the destinations they've seen and seen again, Millennials are paving the way for a new way of traveling, based on discovery, uniqueness and authenticity"³. According to a survey conducted by its services, prior to COVID, in the summer of 2019, the tourist habits of millennials were already characterized by a quest for meaning, a desire to get off the beaten track to get closer to an experience closer to local life. Since 2023, this trend has materialized in the choice of alternative destinations to popular sites⁴. Accustomed to using new technologies to obtain information, read reviews and share their experiences, millennials are consulting travel blogs and social media to increasingly take the byways and find atypical - but still Instagrammable! destinations⁵.
The consequences of these new expectations are also shaping the evolution of the tourist accommodation market. It's impossible not to mention Airbnb, a giant that has made this trend it’s catchphrase "book unique accommodations and live like locals", but it's particularly interesting to note the significantly growing occupancy rates of youth hostels (average annual growth of 10.4% between 2022 and 2027, according to Businesscoot's study of the youth hostel market in France⁶). The success of "new generation" hostels such as The People Hostel, or Jo & Joe (Accor group), which have increased their infrastructure of private studios, with attractive decor and advantageous locations (often in the city center), confirms millennials' taste for quirky, atypical places that offer shared, convivial community spaces⁷.
Finally, this generational trend is also reflected in the choice of tourist and cultural activities. Immersion in daily life, visits to authentic neighborhoods, local markets and small cafés, sampling local cuisine and taking part in cultural events (especially traditional music) are strong markers according to the CBI's 2023 European market survey⁸ (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Millennials' participation in creative workshops is on the rise every year (72% of millennials have taken part in a creative workshop in the past year, according to EventBrite), enabling them to meet artists. The success of the Wecandoo platform, which connects the public with artisans through immersive workshops, is testament to this! After a successful first year in 2022 (sales of 17 million euros⁹), Wecandoo is now targeting the foreign public, offering use cases adapted to tourists and in English.
In short, millennials prefer unique experiences that connect them socially IRL (in Real Life) and IVL (in Virtual Life), rather than collecting souvenirs. The challenge for tourism players is therefore to adapt their offers and services to the specific demands of this generation, by proposing appropriate experiences that will arouse the interest and curiosity of a generation ultra-solicited by screens and advertising, and which will represent, by 2030, over 40% of the world's working-age population and the best growth forecast in terms of net income¹⁰.
¹Dordogne Perigord Tourisme - Les Millenials, January 2023 article
²Cabinet d’études Coachomnium - Les millenials et le tourisme, March 2023 article
³Air of Melty - 69% des Millenials voyagent pendant l’été, mais où et comment ?, 2019 article
⁴Figaro Voyages - Quelles sont les tendances de voyage qui vont marquer 2024 ?, January 2024 article
⁵Revue Raison Présente - Génération Y : les Millenials, 2019 étude
⁶Business Coot - Le marché des auberges de jeunesse en France, October 2022 article
⁷Agence régionale du tourisme Grand Est - Les millenials LA génération de l’expérience, May 2021 article
⁸CBI - The European market potential for millennial tourism, January 2023 study
⁹Bpi France - Wecandoo rend l’artisanat accessible, April 2023 article
¹⁰Odigo - L’expérience client des millenials, April 2023 article
