Millennials are often studied as a group of customers or employees. There is a wide constellation of views about how they buy products or how they perform in the modern office environment. One often-overlooked factor in this analysis is how millennials affect areas of the economy such as business travel. The economic experience of millennials has greatly affected how they act and what they do when they travel for business. Companies need to understand these experiences if they ever hope to capitalize on the ever-growing field of the millennial business traveler.
Caution
Millennials are often worried about their job prospects. They know that they are lucky to have their jobs and are concerned about any slip-ups that could threaten those job prospects. Millennials are familiar with stories about people who go years without finding a job even with spotless records and no punishments or firings on their record.
Stephen Stepaniuk argues that this cautious approach to their jobs carries over into their ideas concerning business travel. Millennials often do not purchase amenities on their company’s credit card at the same rate as older business travelers. They may skip a fancy bottle of wine or a hotel upgrade. Companies have high profit margins for these amenities. They need to focus more on complimentary packages and all-included proposals for packages targeting millennials traveling for business.
Experiences
Millennials often want to enhance the experience of business travel more than their older peers. They want to enhance experiences mainly because business travel is a luxury to most millennials. Many millennials are familiar with jobs where they put in grueling hours for low pay. These jobs have no travel component and are mostly unwanted. According to Stephen Stepaniuk, jobs are therefore coveted when they offer business travel. Millennials who have a job with business travel do not take it for granted. Unlike those who want their business trip to be over as soon as possible, millennials are often more likely to stretch out their business travel as long as they can.
They may add on a trip to a local town or a historic site as part of their business trip. Companies are structuring their business travel to be more accommodating to these individuals. The most popular example is the sales or support conference. These conferences have added on activities to make them more palatable to millennials. They may involve a trip to a brewery, winery, or amusement park. Individuals at the business trip are offered a number of activities that allow them to enjoy the business trip and stick around a particular area. Millennials who are accommodated in their business travel approaches are happier and more productive with their job positions.
Conclusion
Millennials will only continue to increase their share of business travel. As time wears on and millennials gain more job experience, they will begin to fill more positions that allow for business travel. Their needs for caution and experiences will continue to influence the field and companies orienting their business around business travel. Such companies have to cater more to millennials if they hope to succeed in contemporary and future business travel environments. Jump to top