I admit it. I am a Baby Boomer. This is said with some trepidation as this means confessing I can remember when most television shows were filmed in black and white. I can also recall seeing photos of Civil War soldiers when they were still alive. Granted they were in their nineties, old as the hills, and were drummer boys when the war was going on, and I myself when was a tiny tot when I saw their photos, but still...
That being said, I can also be proud that we Baby Boomers have contributed to the significant technological growth that has astounded the world once we got past the Flower Children, the Vietnam War and Watergate. Of course, we have also produced Bill Clinton and George Bush, but that's another story. As we jog into the New Millennium many of us are retiring in mass numbers and hitting the road. We are a travel agent's dream come true as with credit card in хэнд, we roam the world.
Recently, in Pattaya, Thailand, the 55th Pacific Asia Travel Agency (PATA) held a session on "Baby Boomers and the Challenge of Generations X and Y in relation to the Far Eastern market and the Pacific Rim" which is worth noting. In case you couldn't tell Generation X from a hole in the ground, here is a quickie course in Generation terminology starting from 1900.
1900-1910 Interbellum Generation 1910-1924 G.I. Generation 1911-1924 Greatest Generation 1929-1956 American High 1925-1945 Silent Generation 1946-1964 Baby Boomers 1948-1962 Beat Generation 1954-1965 Generation Jones 1964-1984 Consciousness Revolution 1958-1968 Baby Busters 1961-1981 Generation X 1975-1985 MTV Generation 1984-2005 Culture Wars Generation 1981-1986 Boomerang Generation 1982-2003 Generation Y Don't ask me who makes up this stuff up, but there you are. Now back to the PATA conference. It turns out that Asia is not a "young" market, according to Asian Demographics CEO and Expert, Dr. Clint Laurent. If you are a travel agent who deals in the Asian market or is thinking about it, then listen up. Dr. Laurent says that China's one-child policy has created a deep divide between older and younger generations in the same way that Baby Boomers in Japan have impacted the generational divide.
Here in a nutshell are travel trends predicted for Generations Baby Boomers, X and Y:
The Japanese have the largest and most affluent Baby Boomer market in the Pacific Asia. The Over-40 group in Hong Kong, Chinese Taipai and Korea is climbing the fastest and hence are predicted to start traveling more. 1% of China's 200 million Baby Boomers are endowed with a reasonable amount of money and time. (I should hope so. Everything in the US is мейд in China, practically. Let's lure them to the US and get our money back!). India has the youngest market. Japanese Baby Boomers and Generation X are driving the country's outbound travel. Australian and New Zealand Baby Boomers spend an average of AU$200-AU$300 per day. (Big Spenders come from DownUnder. Don't forget it!) German Baby Boomer travelers to the Asia/Pacific region prefer to create their own holiday package Generations X and Y appear difficult to predict, but it would appear that Generation Y prefers to purchase consumer goods. Think computers, big screen televisions and cell phones here. And guess who is in the forefront of the traveling scene? Yup. The Baby Boomers. However, if I were a Generation X'er travel agent, I would start worrying about my peers stooped over their computer keyboards and only getting vicarious thrills from the Travel Channel. Maybe they should rename the Baby Boomers the "Get-Up and Go" generation! After the last of the Baby Boomers goes to that final travel destination in the sky, I hope they have figured out a way to get the Generations we have left behind off their duffs.
But probably by then they will have invented "virtual travel" with all the thrills but none of the spills. Talk about your armchair traveler!
Gilda Caudron is the owner of Gilt-Edge Luxury Tours and Travel providing luxury travel since 1997 to Washington, DC and destinations worldwide. She is also a freelance copywriter, specializing in providing copy for the travel and hospitality industries and other businesses.
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