Millennials Say Flip Flops Are Travel Essential

Will our fascination with Millennials, the younger generation about to take over the leisure travel industry, ever cease? We're guilty too: the topic for the 2016 TMS Family Travel Summit is "Millennials, The New Family Traveler."

 Flip-flops are more likely to be found in Millennial luggage, than Essential Papers -- boomer travelers' preference. Image courtesy of VectorGoods.com

The 4th annual, to-the-trade think tank style event taking place in South Walton, Florida April 17-19, aims to explore the travel habits and aspirations of those turning 18-34 this year, and how those patterns change when they become parents.

We have been looking at a lot of travel studies so this one, from AARP, caught our eye. Since, as they say, my parents used to pay 25 cents for a movie and didn't have seat belts, the matures, seniors and boomers at AARP decided to explore how the travel habits of their cohort differed from those of Generation X (now 34-54 years old), as well as Millennials.

Their findings, from "Travel Research: 2016 Travel Trends," are contained in a fun infographic below.  A quick summary:

• Millennials, the most widely traveled generation that ever existed, are more likely to travel internationally in 2016 than boomers (13% vs. 5%)

• Millennials, who can hardly afford their own living space at home, are more likely to stay in an AirBnB or a VRBO rental than boomers when traveling  (22% vs. 9%)

• Millennials, who pursue adventure tethered to cellphones that help them navigate, communicate and extricate, are more likely than boomers to post to social media while traveling (80% vs. 33%).

AARP 2016 Travel Trends Genenerations Infographic

Let us know your thoughts on this, and what your own kids may be teaching you about their demographic.