Generation Z getting ready for take-off
Over the past decade or so, there has been a great deal of focus placed on the impact and influence of the Millennial generation, such as their preferred business travel and how this has changed the way corporate travel is managed. But what about younger employees, those people who are starting to join the global workforce and who will soon become business travellers? How this next generation, called Generation Z and generally categorised as those born after 1995, changes the shape and delivery of business travel services is becoming an increasingly important subject across the industry.
Booking through smartphones
An Hodgson, Global Head of Income and Expenditure research for Euromonitor International, has noted, “Despite their young age and limited income today, Generation Z will shape the ways businesses create and market their products tomorrow.” By 2030, Millennials and Generation Z will account for the biggest share of global business travellers.
WYSE Travel Confederation specialises in the youth and student travel markets, and regularly carries out research on their travel preferences. Booking travel through smartphones was a major trend for Generation Z: nearly 75 per cent made at least one booking via their mobile phones in 2017 – Millennials had a slightly higher figure of 82%.
Don’t make sweeping generalisations
These findings offer an early insight into the likely trends as Generation Z business travellers continue to enter the workforce. It would be misleading, however, to make too many sweeping generalisations about a whole generation of young people. CWT’s chief data scientist, Dr Eric Tyree, says both Millennials and Generation Z are “used to digital experiences and expect mobile experiences”. They are “mobile natives” and they “don’t want to have to make a booking through a laptop”. Such people “are also comfortable using chat to interface with travel. They don’t want to have to call an agent.” Tyree goes on to warn that “TMCs have to provide mobile-based booking tools that are as close to Amazon in style as possible.” This means they “have to be personalised and automated – you should only need to enter your destination and dates, and then the tool will create the itinerary based on your preferences.”
Data to provide travel answers
As more of Generation Z enters the workforce over the next few years, the use of data will be a central method of discovering the travel preferences of these newcomers. Until relatively recently, however, using your company’s own travel data to gain meaningful insight was traditionally quite a challenge for travel managers – often involving trawling through spreadsheets and using cumbersome manual tools. Using artificial intelligence (AI), CWT AnswerIQ makes the process much easier, meaning travel managers can now get answers to even the most detailed travel query.
One-stop tool for all travel bookings
Young travellers born into our high-tech mobile age expect a smooth, integrated travel experience. With a consistent look and feel across all platforms, myCWT is a single tool to book and organise business trips aimed at all CWT travellers and travel managers. It provides guidance from start to finish, with hotel offers and flight bookings, itineraries, mobile check-in, flight alerts and the ability to review travel policy. Duty-of-care is also provided through CWT Alerts warning travellers about anything that may affect their trip, pose a health threat or increase risk to their safety and security.
This article was written by Rob Gill and was originally published in the Spring issue of Connect. It has been shortened for digital distrubtion.
