They are born after 2010 (nine years and under) in the same year as Instagram and the iPad, are known as the children of millennials, the largest generation that is still being born on a daily basis, and the longest living generation.
This is Generation Alpha. “If you don’t know about Alpha, you need to know about Alpha because they are the future of travel as we know it,” said Wendy Olson Killion, global vice president, business development for Expedia Media Solutions.
She was at WiT Singapore 2019 to share findings from the company’s new research on this group that explores the influence of these youngsters on how their families travel.
Killion highlighted four key takeaways from the report.
“Not all family trips are created equal, and travel trips vary by markets,” she said.
Diving into three key markets in Asia – China, Japan and Australia – the research showed the global average for the number of kid-free trips is 1.2, China 1.7, Japan 0.5 and Australia 0.9, while the global average of family leisure trips is 2.4, China 2.7, Japan 2.3 and Australia 2.2.
“It is important to look at this,” said Killion.
Kids are also going on leisure trips and these are designed around their schedule.
Planes remain the most preferred mode of transport globally as they want to reach their destination as quickly as possible, with the same for Chinese. The Japanese travel by cars and trains domestically.
The second takeaway is, nearly two thirds of APAC travellers stay in hotels – the most preferred accommodation when travelling with children. Australians, however, are looking at alternative accommodation, much more than any of the other countries globally. The choice of accommodation is influenced by location, family needs (like things for children to do and large room size) and safety for children.
“When it comes to family travel experience beats expense. This is really good news for us in the industry and for us as marketers,” said Killion.
Families look for a place young children will enjoy, that is kid friendly, where there are activities for the entire family and where they don’t have to worry about safety, which is important for this group.
The other two takeaways: over 75% of families frequently plan their travel together; 75% of the families surveyed said they frequently or somewhat frequently talked to their children about travel.
Gen Alpha are also influenced by these factors:
- Imagery or information they see that highlights kid-friendly activities/attractions (26%)
- Travel-related imagery or information they see on TV (21%)
- Things they hear from other family members (21%)
- Things they hear from friends and/or learn about in school (20%)
Killion reminded the audience that the experiences Gen Alpha travellers are having now are critical as it will influence them as future customers, so it is important to please them now. Definitely a generation born to travel
Download the report here.
