A new report released by UK-based personalization platform provider Fresh Relevance provides insights into how under-35s are researching and booking holidays in 2020.

Preferred channels more likely to be used vs. average traveler:

Millennials:

• Review websites (used by 46%)
• Online travel agents (45%)
• Service provider websites (42%)
• Peer recommendations (32%)
• Social media (29%)

Gen Z:

• Travel agents (25%)
• Travel apps (17%)
• Print travel publications (15%)
• Blogs (12%)

Emerging channels these young demographics say they would feel comfortable using in researching/booking next trip:

• Streaming services (41%-44%)
• Virtual reality (31%-32%)
• Chatbots (28%-30%)
• Voice search (25%)
• None of these (14%-16%)

They also say they would be likely to use the shopping features of social media platforms to book a holiday:

• Facebook (42%-52%)
• Instagram (48%-49%)
• Pinterest (34%-37%)

Top frustrations when researching and booking holidays:

• Retargeted ads for holidays already booked (23%-32%)
• Irrelevant offers (27%-31%)
• Length of time spent trying to find offers similar to those researched or booked previously (21%-26%)
• Expired offers (26%)
• Overwhelming numbers of researching and booking options (24%-26%)
• Irrelevant marketing e-mails (21%-22%)
• Unable to find best deal - too many options (21%-22%)

Marketing tactics they say they would find useful in making a holiday decision:

• Reviews and UGC (27%-34%)
• Price drop e-mail (20%-28%)
• Available once again e-mail (20%-23%)
• Personalized recommendations (20%-21%)

How they say travel companies perform compared to retailers:

• 25% of both Gen Z and Millennials are loyal to a few online stores but don't have a preferred travel company.
• 22% of Gen Z and 21% of Millennials say they find booking travel online more difficult than making a retail purchase online.
• 88% of Gen Z and 89% of Millennials say online retailers are better at understanding their needs vs. travel companies.

Results are based on a survey conducted 9 June - 9 October 2019 of 600 UK consumers aged 16 to 34 who had booked a holiday in the previous 12 months.

Comments:

• Notice that the preferred channels of Gen Z are more similar to those of the "average traveler" than are those of Millennials. And remember that today's Gen Zs are tomorrow's Millennials, and today's Millennials are driving the overall average. So expect heavier use of the Millennials' preferred channels across demographics as time passes.
• Keep an eye on those "emerging channels".
• Get better at personalizing, to avoid frustrating these young demographics. Remember that they're impatient and hate to have to read anything. (See this Neilsen Norman research.)