2017 - Times, they’re sure a-changing. They always do.
And so are the time keepers; the people who populate the generations that oversee the hospitality industry, and, in partic- ular, those of us within the events planning fold of the biz.
Old technologies are making way for newer innovations.
Archaic work positions are being streamlined or replaced by tech-forward employment solutions. Everything is happening instantaneously.
Through the last few years I’ve noticed a paradigm shift, a modification on how business is being done; in who’s creating actual bookings and how it’s all being communicated.
It’s a lot to try and take in, because – let’s face it – there are so many (too many? not enough?) ways in which we spread our messages to one another.
If change is a primary effect of technology, then we have the newest members of the workforce to thank for it. Ever online and always Wi-Fi-in, today’s Millennials are as much the focal point of Silicon Valley as they are on Madison Avenue.
This evolution in consumerism has caused a perceptive rift amongst some peers within the hospitality industry – a great divide between the Baby Boomer/Gen X mindset of “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen,” as opposed to the DIY/Quick Serve mentality that is so pervasive amongst the younger set.
It’s become a battle cry of fallacies of sorts coming from each sector of the population:
“Boomers and Gen X-ers are dinosaurs who are stuck in their old ways, and not willing to adapt and to change.”
“Today’s youth have a bloated sense of entitlement.” Let’s examine this divide more closely…
The Generation Gap
In his spoken-word ode to the graduating Class of 1997 called “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen),” Baz Luhrmann offered up a voice of experience through illuminating rumina- tions to society’s fledglings, including these life-lived nuggets: “Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old. And when you do, you’ll fanta- size that when you were young prices were reasonable, politi- cians were noble, and children respected their elders.” I bring this novelty recording up, because we live in an era
where the term “Millennial generation” (those born between 1994 and 2003 or so) is leading the mainstream. Millennials are at the vanguard of pop culture and mass media. Where the Millennials go, so goes – well, everything.
Sure, society has always aimed its advertising toward the youth of the day, but no other generation – not even those irascible “Rat Pack” Gen X-ers – achieved such dominance within main stream culture as do today’s Millennials. And that’s because of the tentacle-ization of social media.
Face it: Millennials make up 21 percent of consumer discre- tionary purchases, which is estimated to be over a trillion dol- lars in direct buying power and a huge influence on older gen- erations. When it comes to lodging, Millennials make up 70 percent of all hotel guests.
That’s the good news. Unfortunately, though, there also is significant bad news for hotels…
In general, Millennials have lower incomes than previous gener- ations, coupled with higher levels of debt, making them partic- ularly sensitive to the value proposition of a product or service; in fact, Millennials check an average of 10 sources before making travel purchases to make sure they pay as little as possible.
“Unlike previous generations, 72 percent of Millennials choose to prioritize experiences over luxury and material goods,” says travel expert Mike Murray of ehotelier. “This preference is the basis of the emerging Experience Economy, in which busi- nesses must orchestrate memorable events for their cus- tomers, and that memory itself becomes the product. As such, Millennials often prefer alternative accommodation options to traditional hotels because they offer a more authentic, local experience while traveling.”
In other words, it’s ultimately the Millennials who control how money is going to be spent throughout the global market- place, and – frankly – that’s iritating their elders. If there’s any- thing truly frightening to those within older generations, it’s that traditional experiences as we’ve known them – staying at a hotel, dining in a restaurant, riding in a taxi, shopping at the mall – they’re all morphing into different sorts of experiences that ultimately are controlled by some younger individual, as it were, and his or her own communications device.
Meanwhile, my 15-year old daughter thinks I’m utterly out of touch, because I use Facebook as a work-related tool, when, in fact, to her and her friends, that’s so passé. Snapchat’s the way to go in her world. Quick, visual-forward snippets of infor- mation. Send, Share, Send, Share. Anything else is so…2010!
Mid-Atlantic EVENTS Magazine 89
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