360DigitalInfluence

Your vacation could be like this!

As a Gen X-er, I’ll be the first to admit I was a little late to jump on “The Hangover” bandwagon, having just seen it earlier this week.  But then yesterday, a fellow Twitterer posted a link about a Las Vegas vacation based around the film.  However, it’s actually old news - the promotion - has already ended as of August 1. 

But the promotion alone - and the fact that a 33-year-old male sports blogger - tweeted about it got me to thinking about the target audience for promotions like this.  Traditionally, marketers focus travel outreach on moms or women, as they are usually the ones making the travel - and other spending - decisions for a household.  This holds true not only for family vacations - for which it’d be more obvious - but also for long-haul destinations that traditionally cost more. 

This trend, however, seems to be switching.  One of the main travel trends this year is to still travel on “once-in-a-lifetime” trips for a birthday, anniversary, wedding, etc.  It seems bachelor parties can now also be added to that list.  And what sets these events apart from other “usual” vacations is that there’s more of a commitment - both from a time and financial perspective.  For marketers, we’ve had to notice and realize that that means MEN are now as much a part of the decision-making process.

Another trend both men and Gen Y are jumping on is couchsurfing.  The organization has actually been around since 2004 and it has members in more than 230 countries and territories.  However, in the last year, it has grown to more than 1 million members and has become more mainstream - with stories appearing recently in the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.  This is another non-traditional way of people making sure, even in a down economy, that they are experiencing the world around them. 

While some of us Gen X marketers may find it a little strange or off-putting to offer to share our home - or our couch - with perfect strangers, we are realizing that, even as the economy starts picking up again, this generation of travelers - younger and more gender balanced - will be the ones spending in our clients’ hotels and at their destinations.  Like the night in the Hangover, this audience may have a tendency to be forgotten, but we really should not.