TURNER Goes Millennial At The 2018 New York Times Travel Show

This past weekend, members of the TURNER team attended the world-renowned New York Times Travel Show at NYC’s Jacob K. Javits Center. Celebrating its 15 ^th anniversary, the show hosted more exhibitors and more destinations than ever before this year. In 2018, the show went back to its roots with a plethora of location booths and mixers that offered deeper looks into countries all around the world.

The TURNER team also got a chance to sit in on the State of the Industry keynote address that featured a panel of travel leadership including President Jennifer Tombaugh of Tauck. The conversation quickly shifted into inclusiveness in the travel space – since women are arguably drivers of the industry.

One of these women was Naureen Kazi, our VP of Tourism and Officer of Development for the Miami chapter of Millennials in Travel. She moderated a panel discussion on behalf of Millennials in Travel entitled “Millennial Travel Engagement: Acquiring, Engaging & Working with Millennials in the Travel Space.” During the panel, Kazi shared data that provided valuable insight into the experience of the modern millennial travel professional. The panelists included such industry leaders as:

• Sam McDiarmid, Director of Business Development and Agency Sales for Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts;
• Ashley Les, Leisure & Corporate Travel Specialist for Protravel International;
• Aizaz Sheikh, Director of Marketing in Canada for G Adventures.

One of the conversation starters during the panel had to do with non-financial benefits of jobs. According to the survey, about 35 percent of millennials saw PTO as the #1 tactic for acquiring them, while about 10 percent less saw Medical/Dental insurance as #2.

To no surprise, additional open responses really stressed the need for a flexible work/life balance. Protravel International’s Ashley Les spoke about the perks of being her own boss, specifically highlighting the flexibility of fulfilling her native interest in international travel while still getting down to business – a trend otherwise known as bleisure travel.

Kazi went on to discuss the feelings of millennials towards their jobs in the travel industry. To no surprise, a whopping 70 percent reported that they genuinely enjoy their job. However, the same number stated that they remain open to other job opportunities. This raised a few eyebrows due to the implication that millennial retention may be a bigger challenge than actual acquisition.

A cheat code to the challenge, though, is the personalization of not only your team, but also your customer – something that Shangri-La Hotels’ Sam McDiarmid highlighted as a crucial part to their overall millennial strategy. The conversation then segued into millennials’ thoughts on management. While 75 percent of respondents are managed by a non-millennial, 70 percent of them said that the age of their boss is irrelevant. More than 50 percent view their boss as a mentor and a coach. “I often tell my team that they don’t work for me,” Aizaz Sheikh said. “I work for them.”