Business travel among Millennials was up 40% in 2011 and the business travel industry is learning to accommodate them. For example, Millennials like paperless travel, using apps and websites to handle all of their arrangements and transactions. “All of my tickets can go on my phone,” says one Millennial. “I scan it at the T.S.A. and scan it at the gate. There’s no reason to print out airline tickets again.”
They prefer travel communication in the form of texts, emails, or social media messages. And they expect customer assistance from all of their travel vendors to be available 24/7. “They expect to do things online and 24/7 wherever they are,” says a travel consultant.
Millennial travelers are also more demanding, having had more travel experience at a younger age than previous generations. Wi-Fi is a minimum requirement, according to a hotel executive, “If you don’t have Wi-Fi throughout the hotel, this generation isn’t going to stay with you.” Hotels are adding other Millennial-friendly amenities like open social spaces. And if they aren’t up to par, Millennials’ feedback is instant, swiftly posted on the hotels’ or airlines’ Facebook pages.
Millennials are beginning to demonstrate an inclination to travel and hotels are keen to accommodate them. Travel spending by Millennials rose 20% in 2010, according to the New York Times, and now nearly every major hotel brand has developed products to appeal to them.
Business travel is projected to rebound in 2012, with Millennial and Gen X business travelers leading the way. In a new Deloitte survey, 27% of Gen X and Millennials say they will travel more for business next year, nearly twice the percentage of Boomers and Matures who plan to take more trips.